The Lost Souls (14 page)

Summer

Xan
Deleanu looked at the familiar faces around the fire pit. Nadya Popa sat beside Pesha Moldoveanu, their heads bent together as they talked among themselves. Next to Pesha was Simionce Asenov with his arm slung over Onyx Vãduva’s shoulders. Next to Onyx sat Nico Čonka and beside him, a Gaje named Mira. Sleeping in between them was Michaela, Becki Bálan and Tobar Popa’s daughter.

Only weeks after his own arrival in Trinity’s camp, Xan had been out hunting when he’d come across Nico, Mira, and Michaela holed up in Nico’s trailer. Neither Nico nor Mira did much speaking. They still had yet to tell anyone what had actually happened to them—or Becki and Hockey, for that matter—but anyone could guess. The two of them wore the grief from their losses as plain as day.

Next to Mira was Adriana Siwak, and beside her was Fifi Horváth. Pausing, Xan studied Fifi. Back at camp, she’d been beaten and raped by a clan member they’d all considered a friend, someone they’d all loved. At first, Fifi couldn’t stand to have anyone touch her, but that wasn’t the case anymore. She was doing incredibly well, and he was damn proud of her.

Actually, Xan was proud of all of them. After what they’d all been through, everyone was doing remarkably well. Everyone except
Trinity. His wife.

When he’d first found her, warded inside this park, living comfortably away from the Skin Eaters who had quickly terrorized and taken over the world, he’d been beyond thankful. Skins were essentially high-octane humans with an appetite for raw flesh and blood. Once bitten by one, a human
was transformed into a deadly fast, hard-to-kill, clawed, fanged freak, who ate first and thought later. Or so they’d thought. It appeared that Skins were quickly mastering the ability to control themselves.

The only reason his clan had survived the initial outbreak was inborn magic, gifted to everyone in his clan except himself, a half Rom and half Gaje, thanks to his Native American fuck-and-run tată.

Trinity hadn’t had magic either—at least not until she’d been gifted hers from Gerik. Her soul mate. Her lover. The man she was grieving for and the reason she was wasting away inside her cabin.

Gerik
Hjemsäter
became cursed when he’d used dark magic to protect their clan, and his punishment, his transformation from man to beast, had completed just before Xan found Trinity. Supposedly, Gerik was now a full-fledged dragon, the size of an airplane. He had taken to the sky, never to be heard from again.

Trinity was devastated. Or
Xan assumed that Trinity was devastated. She sure wasn’t acting devastated, but he assumed her ever-increasing bad behavior was actually a mask for how devastated she really did feel.

And he…well, he was drunk.

And high.

And, yeah, he was pretty fucking devastated, too.

Glancing toward her cabin, Xan watched the firelight from inside flicker in the window.

She had barely spoken to him, and she couldn’t even look at him without her beautiful emerald eyes bleeding to black. His wife, the only woman he’d ever loved, hated his fucking guts.

Mostly because he was a cheating bastard. Yeah, he’d fucked Nadya. And Fifi. And Onyx. All of whom he’d stupidly allowed to join him on his search for Trinity.

But he wasn’t too happy with her either. It seemed a little hypocritical of her to be holding a grudge against him when she’d gone and done the same damn thing.

The last time Xan seen Trinity at camp in the Catskills, he’d been leaving on a supply raid with several other men. It was something they’d often done, had to do if they wanted to continue surviving. He’d left, lost nearly everyone in the raiding party, and had come home to an empty camp and a shit ton of fresh graves. By the time he and the other two survivors of the failed raid had met up with their clan, many more had died, including his mamă. Trinity had been taken by Gerik after his transformation, and so he’d assumed she had been with Gerik ever since.

Only she hadn’t. Frate had given her the magic she was born to possess and left her. Just up and left her. She’d been wandering for months on her own when she’d come across this park and the protection it offered. Gerik had shown up a few months later and so ensued their fucking love affair.

Love affair.

Not meaningless random sex with some
fete
he couldn’t give two shits about.

The way Xan saw it was, yeah, she had every right to be pissed off, but he had every right to beat the ever-loving shit out of her. He was her husband, which by Romani law meant he could punish her for her infidelity however he saw fit. Not that he’d ever beat on Trinity, but it sure as shit sounded good when she was in an especially bad mood and trying to set him on fire.

“Heads up,” Pesha whispered, nodding at Trinity’s cabin.

He turned just in time to see her kick the door closed behind her. Wearing only a ribbed black tank and a pair of black underwear, palming a longneck bottle of liquor, Trinity headed straight for them. As she passed by him, she swiped his cigarettes out of his hand. Her thick black hair had grown past her waist, the tips now brushing the tops of her thighs. She was leaner, her body beautifully toned and defined, oozing strength. Not one iota of the little girl he’d married remained. Fată was all woman now. Just not his woman anymore.

“Gimme,” she said, gesturing to the blunt between Adriana’s lips. Like a pro, she took three short puffs, held her breath, released, and then took another three before passing it back. Up went the bottle, and fată chugged that shit a good
, long minute.

Then she
sat on a patch of grass right next to Pesha, and frate lit up a smoke for her.

“Thanks,” she said, grinning around an exhale of smoke.

Pesha winked at her. “Anytime, fată.”

“Or anywhere,” she purred. “Right, Moldoveanu?”

Damn her and her fucking split personality. Black-hearted bitch one second, and the next, sultry, slutty sex kitten. He didn’t like either of them.

“You know it, gorgeous,” Pesha drawled back, flirting shamelessly with her.

Because of Trinity’s affinities for all five elements—earth, air, water, fire, and spirit—she had the ability to manipulate…well, damn near anything she wanted to. Right now, she was using fire, a power that could heal or harm. Fire was also an internal element and made up of pure feminine or masculine energy that, depending on the gender of the user, could create lust in the opposite sex if used correctly.

“Mm
m-hmm,” she murmured, scooting closer to him and locking arms. Her head fell drunkenly on Pesha’s arm, and she smiled silkily.

The scent of dark magic grew stronger, smelling of sweet sulfur. Trinity was packing some powerful heat tonight.

“Pesha,” she murmured, looking up at him with a sweet, sexy smile.

Pesha’s eyes glazed over. “Yeah, fată?”

“You wanna come home with me tonight?”

Xan squeezed his eyes closed, asking God to make sure that when he choked her, he didn’t accidently kill her. Maiming was okay but not killing.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Pesha’s tongue down his wife’s throat, and everyone else was watching and waiting for what he was going to do.

“You want me to handle it this time?” Simionce asked.

This time. Because there had been many times over the past few months that she’d used Pesha to make him crazy jealous. He’d reached his boiling point.

“No,” he growled, getting to his feet. “She’s my wife, which means she’s my fucking problem.”

Xan walked around the fire pit and knelt down beside the two lovebirds. Trinity slanted her black eyes toward him—they were always black now—and deepened the kiss.

“Keep this shit up, Trinity, and I’m gonna tie you to your bed.”

Her tongue still tangled with Pesha’s, she giggled.

Giggled.

At him.

That was it. He was done.

Grabbing her around her waist, he yanked her off a stunned Pesha and held her tight against him.

“What the hell, Trinity?” Pesha shouted, having come to his senses. “Why are you always trying to get me killed? Can’t you pick on Simionce for a change?”

“Hey!” Onyx yelled.

Xan pinned Pesha with an angry glare. “That shit she pulls on you wouldn’t work if you weren’t already sporting a hard-on for her, frate.”

Embarrassed, Pesha turned away. “Who wouldn’t?” he muttered. “Fucking look at her.”

“Yeah, Xan. Fucking look at me,” she sneered, glaring up at him. “Look. At. Me. And yet you still couldn’t keep it in your pants.”

“WHAT ABOUT YOU?” he roared. “How many times did you spread your thighs for that fucking freak?”

“Baby,” she purred
. “I spread my thighs for him so many times that I lost count.”

He grabbed her biceps and shook her hard. “Don’t bother trying to make me jealous,” he growled through clenched teeth. “BECAUSE I ALREADY AM!”

“Then maybe I need to amp it up a bit!”

His nostrils flared. “You’re wasted,” he hissed. “Time for bed.”

Xan muscled her backward with her kicking and screaming across the park and into her cabin. He kicked the door shut behind him.

Shoving her down on her futon, he knelt in front of her. “Stop it,” he growled. “I’m officially hurting, Trinity! That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? For me to suffer? It worked, fată! I’m fucking suffering! You don’t need to keep throwing it in my face!”

“No!” she screamed. “You are not hurting nearly enough!”

“Fucking my friends won’t make you feel better!” he roared.

She went still. “Oh, but it will.” She was purring again.

Gone was the sadistic bitch, and here came the sleaze from hell.

“Because I already did fuck one of your friends. At least, he was your friend once upon a time. And, baby, let me tell you, it felt fucking awesome.” Her voice dropped to a seductive whisper. “Want to know just how much I liked it? Where. I. Liked. It?” She punctuated her last four words with venom.

Xan’s chest was growing unbearably tight, and tears were burning behind his eyes. She was fucking killing him. He’d never hurt so badly in all his life. He’d thought losing her had been hard, but he was wrong. Finding her, only to find out she hated him and would never forgive him, was a fuck of a lot harder.

“Shut up,” he choked out.

Laughing, she leaned forward and pressed her tits up against his chest. “You liked it when you were the only man I’d ever been with, didn’t you?” she whispered. “You loved that I was all yours, only ever yours. So, how does it feel now, knowing that I gave someone else
what was yours?”

“Shut the fuck up!” he roared, shaking her. “Just shut the FUCK UP AND STOP ACTING LIKE THIS!”

“Fuck you!” She lunged forward, catching him off guard.

Xan
toppled backward, her on top of him, and she skull-slammed him. Him. Trinity. She skull-slammed him.

Through blurry eyes, he saw her standing over him, her eyes flashing with pure power, looking like a madwoman. Spirit wisps had risen from the ground below the cabin and through the wood-planked floor. They were writhing around her, black and translucent, skeletal-like arms and hands with spindly fingers slithering over her skin, wrapping around her…almost lovingly.

For a moment, he thought she was going to kill him. Too late, he saw her foot shoot out and her heel connected with his manhood and sent it straight up into his stomach. As agonizing pain tore through his abdomen and lower body, a garbled scream lodged in his throat. He went fetal, cupping himself as if it would help, as he tried hard not to vomit.

Through now burning and watery eyes, Xan blinked up at her and found her staring down at him, looking a little horrified. Fucking hell. That only pissed him off more. She could at least have the decency to own what she’d just done. And what she’d done was emasculate and embarrass him while rendering him useless for future procreation.

“You asshole!” she cried. “Look what you made me do!”

“Are you fucking serious?” he choked out.

As she spun away from him, headed for the door, his arm shot out. Grabbing hold of her ankle, he yanked. She lost her footing, teetered backward, and ended up falling on top of him, her back to his front. Wrapping his legs around his knees and his arms around her middle, he grabbed hold of her wrists and slapped her palms together.

“What the fuck?” she screamed, trying to jerk herself free of him. “Let me go!”

She might have all the magic in the world, but he was still a fuck of a lot stronger than her.

Leaning up,
Xan whispered in her ear. “If you make one more fuckin’ move, I will knock you the fuck out.”

She went still, and he grunted.
“That’s better, fată. We need to talk.”

“So fucking talk,” she spat.

“I wasn’t gonna lie to you, fată. I didn’t plan on you finding out about the women through a fucking kiss, but I planned on telling you everything. I thought you’d left me for him, so yeah, I fucked Nadya. And Fi. And Onyx. It’s done. I can’t take it back.”