The Accidental Kiss (The Kiss Book 1) (28 page)

“Don’t say those words.” I blurted out. Rejection skittered over his features. Smiling to show I meant no harm, my hand squeezed his thigh. “Don’t say those words until you are safe to say them.”

He nodded in understanding and grinned wickedly. “You know? There is one sure fire way to stop the voodoo priest.”

A laugh bubbled out of my throat. “You’re such a boy. You almost died and you’re already thinking about sex.”

“It’s your fault.” Daemon tugged me out of the chair and onto his lap where my legs straddled his hips. “Stop being so sexy.”

“If you stop first.”

I tugged a lock of his hair, coaxing a smile out of him. Daemon clamped his hand around my wrists and held my arms above my head. Lust blossomed between my thighs as he looked at me with enough fire to set the room ablaze.

“You undo me,” he breathed.

He nibbled my bottom lip as he weakened me with kisses. He let go of my hands so that they could roam the hard apex of his muscles. They rippled underneath my touch.

I yanked his shirt over his head and groaned at the sight of his beautiful skin on display. “It’s not fair how pretty you are.”

Daemon chuckled as his fingers splayed over my ribcage, creating a path of fire underneath my breast. My eyes fell shut and my body arched into his hands. The dress I wore was discarded over my head.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

His mouth pressed against my stomach, and his fingers brushed over my nipple while he built a fierce and furious need with his hands. Nothing else existed in this moment except our desire for each other. Whatever regrets we had, whatever pain we felt vanished into a wisp of smoke.

A knock on the door interrupted us. I tore my mouth away from Daemon’s, breathing heavily. His thickness against my thigh was a taunting reminder of what could’ve happened.

He rested his forehead against mine and swore under his breath. “I really regret not taking you on the boat.”

“Yeah, but based on your performance in this bed, the boat would have tipped over and who wants moss in their private parts?”

Daemon arched an eyebrow. “Moss?”

The knocking grew louder. I removed myself from Daemon’s lap and grabbed my dress off the floor. “Doesn’t moss grow in swamps? I thought I read that somewhere.”

Daemon pressed a kiss against my spine while he wrapped his arms around my waist, tugging me backwards. “No clue, Mrs. Smarty pants but I’ll show you a few things I do know.”

I’m sure he could. Daemon was by far the most gifted lover I had been with. The things he could with his tongue…a shudder coursed through me. If only whoever was knocking on the door hadn’t interrupted us, I’d be sedated with pleasure right now.

Laughing, I regretfully swatted away his hand. “Next time, and there will be a next time.“

“Can’t wait.” He lifted my hair off my neck and planted another kiss against my skin. “Seriously, I CAN’T wait.”

“Yes, you can because I will make it worth it.”

The knocking raged on and an annoyed expression lit up Daemon’s face. “Hold on,” he yelled.

“It’s important,” Mrs. Ruth’s voice sounded from the other side of the wooden door. “Trust me.”

Once we were presentable, Daemon nodded at me to let Mrs. Ruth in. As my fingers were about to turn the doorknob, she barged inside.

“I have great news.” Her excitement was bubbling over. “Correction. Fabulous news.”

Daemon and I shared an expectant look. Mrs. Ruth paced the small floor plan of the room while the suspense escalated until finally it became too much.

“Will you please tell us?” I exclaimed. “Or do we need to pry it out of you? Jesus, you’re as bad as my mother.”

Mrs. Ruth skidded to halt. Mischief glinted in her eyes as her hand slid into her robe and pulled out two bottles. When she held them out for us to see, the red and green liquid shimmered through the glass vessels.

“What is that?” I breathed.

“This,” she said triumphantly. “This is the answer to your prayers.”

I hoped on all the stars in the universe it was a spell to rid the voodoo priest of his magic. Otherwise, Mrs. Ruth had an awful sense of humor. Daemon beckoned her to continue.

She shook the red vial. “It took a little tinkering, a dash of witches brew, a smidgen of ox hair, and a drop of Sky’s blood.”

My mouth dropped open. “You took my blood? How did you take my blood?” I searched my arms for evidence but there wasn’t any pinpricks or track marks.

“I had to harness the power of good into liquid form. Your blood was the purest I could find.” Her gaze raked over my wrinkled dress. “At least it was.”

Daemon staking claim to my body flashed through my mind. A blush heated my cheeks. Mrs. Ruth got her answer and gave me a knowing smile.

“So this red liquid is the power of good?” Daemon questioned.

“Yes. Sometimes things aren’t as complicated as you make them. Basically, I tried to think of what cancels out evil when suddenly it came to me.” Mrs. Ruth smacked her forehead like it was so obvious. “Good cancels out evil. So I ran upstairs, pricked Sky’s thumb when she was sleeping and conjured up a spell.”

I don’t recall falling asleep, yet again; these past few hours were hazy. “How does it work?”

“I haven’t had time to test it, but with luck the spell will act like holy water and strip the voodoo priest of his powers.”

The notion of going in blind without any weapons and or a spell that might or might not work sounded like an awful scheme.

Daemon came to the same conclusion. “Thank you for your help, but it sounds too risky. If the spell haywires and acts likes a mere bath instead, Sky and I are dead.”

Mrs. Ruth pursed her lips. “I understand your concerns but what other choice do you have? You and Sky will be compote if you don’t try it.”

My body sagged into the armchair next to Daemon’s bed, overcome with despair. In the corner of my eye, I saw my cell phone peeking out from underneath the cushion. It must have fallen out of my pocket. Grabbing the phone, the screen lit up with five new messages from my mom. Unease turned in my stomach. I listened to the first one.

“Sky, it’s me. Emily’s mom called and said she was missing since last night. Do you know anything about this? Where are you?” Beep. “Sky, seriously. Call me back.” My mother’s voice increased with alarm as the messages continued.

I put the phone down and sucked my teeth between my lips. Emily’s mom could simply be overreacting and assuming the worst. Though, something in my gut told me she wasn’t.

“What’s wrong?” Daemon asked.

“Emily has been missing since last night and I can bet you thousand dollars I know exactly who has a role in her disappearance.”

“The voodoo priest?” Daemon guessed correctly.

“Yup.” Rage caused my hands to shake violently. The voodoo priest already took away Melissa. He was in for a world of hurt if he harmed a single hair on Emily’s head as well.

Daemon shifted over to the side of the bed and cradled my hands. “You don’t know that for sure. Why don’t you give Emily a call?” He spoke gently, which enraged me further.

“I do know that for sure because he will destroy everybody I care about to get to me.”

“She’s right,” Mrs. Ruth confirmed. “The voodoo priest doesn’t care about anything but the end goal.”

Daemon cut her a look to shut up then turned his attention back to me. “What’s the harm in calling? Worst-case scenario is she doesn’t answer. Then you call Lucy. Somebody has to have a clue.”

His rationale seeped into my brain and talked me off the crazy cliff. Grabbing my phone, I tossed it at Daemon. “Can you punch in her number?”

“Sure.” His index finger scrolled through my contacts until he reached Emily’s name. “You ready?”

Taking a deep breath to prepare myself for the good, the bad and the awful, my chin dipped in a yes. He tapped the screen and handed me back my cell phone. “It’s ringing.”

I anxiously pressed it against my ear. Once, twice, three times…I let out a lungful of air when the line clicked on.

“Hello, Sky.” The voice didn’t belong to Emily. It was unemotional, calculating and unless Emily had switched genders, male.

“Who is this?”

“Who do you think it is? Oh, play along. I do love games,” he said gleefully.

These past few days, my imagination had built the voodoo priest into a faceless man without a voice. Now that he was on the other side of the phone, the pieces started to fit together and formed a sicker character than I could ever possibly dream up. Emily was in grave danger.

“I don’t. I hate games. Especially the kind you play,” I spit out.

Daemon’s eyes danced with questions while he mouthed, “Who is it?”

Shaking my head, I turned my back to him and walked out into the hallway. If Daemon knew it was the voodoo priest, he would force me to hang up. However, right now, gathering as much information about Emily’s whereabouts was imperative.

“Ouch, I’m hurt,” the voodoo priest said.

“Look, cut the bullshit. Where is my friend?”

“You mean Emily?” A woman’s scream sounded in the background. “Don’t worry, she isn’t dead…yet.”

“You sick asshole.” I brought the cell phone closer to my mouth. “Why are you taking innocent lives to resurrect a religion nobody gives two shits about? Not to mention following century old traditions.”

The voodoo priest’s voice dripped with hatred. “Don’t you dare question me about traditions when you have no clue what that word means. You were born to give up your life so that Santeria could thrive. Stop running away and face your fate, Sky.”

“Nobody as psychotic as you should be in charge of leading a community of people.”

“And nobody as selfish as you should have been chosen as the gifted one. Yet here we are.”

Instead of matching wits with him, I had to ensure Emily wouldn’t be harmed with a deal he couldn’t refuse, but first things first. “Put Emily on the phone and we will figure something out.”

The voodoo priest clicked his tongue as he considered my demand. A strong urge to yank it out of his mouth overcame me. “Ok. You have one minute.”

A second later Emily’s sweet voice flooded the phone line. Tears of relief sprang to my eyes. “Are you ok?”

“Considering I was thrown into the back of a van blindfolded and dragged to an abandoned warehouse, yeah, I’m perfect.”

I was happy to hear her sarcasm was still intact. It meant the voodoo priest hadn’t broken her yet. “I’m sorry, Emily. This is my fault and I intend to get you out of there as soon as possible. Promise.”

“Why is this your fault? What haven’t you told me?”

Literally everything
was almost my response but since we only had a minute, I had to strip the facts to the bare bones and somehow get to the meat of the story. “Basically, the creepy guy who kidnapped you wants to drain me of my blood because it’s part of an old world tradition to become a high ranking official in the Santeria religion. You are being used as bait.”

“I have no idea how to respond or process any of that information.”

“Neither did I at first but when somebody wants to kill you, you learn quickly.”

Emily’s tough girl front dropped away and left behind a scared teenage girl. “Please just come save me. I want to go home.”