Sacrifice: Laid Bare (Laid Bare #4)(10)

“What are you doing?” Dunne sounded terrified.

“Shh…”

“Dahlia?” I questioned when she placed her hand on one of Dunne’s scarred cheeks and the ice grew thicker. “Whatever you’re doing, love, you need to stop.”

She yanked her hand from mine and shoved my shoulder down so hard I had no choice but to kneel on the floor. “Quiet!” she ordered.

I had no idea what Dahlia was up to, but it was becoming abundantly clear not I, nor Dunne, could stop her.

He peered over at me frantically as Dahlia iced the other side of his face…and then his chin…and then his forehead. Closing his eyes, he tumbled to the floor, unconscious.

Good God. What have we done?

Had we created not something beautiful, as Dunne had proclaimed, but something wicked and mean?

I tried to stand to stop this über-powerful form of Dahlia, but soon realized I could no longer move. She had rendered me motionless.

Leaning down, spirit-Dahlia kissed my lips. I could not move to kiss her back, though I wanted to. Evil, or not, I would always love Dahlia.

“I love you, too, Lucien,” she whispered as she pulled away. “And that is why I must do this.”

She was in my head, but before I could ask her what she meant to do, she uttered, “Now go to sleep, my dear.”

I then crumpled to the floor.





Dahlia



I needed Lucien and Dunne to be in the same unconscious state my physical form was in for what I was about to do to work.

When we did all wake, we’d require one final night together to rebalance our power. What I told the men was true—I held far too much. But while I had all this extra strength, I intended to use it to spare Lucien of his part in his parents’ insidious pact.

In the form I was in, no one could stop me.

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to locate Lucien’s family. Fortuitous for me, they were all together. Even Selene was there, dining with Lucien’s parents at their English estate.

I merely imagined myself there, and suddenly, I was in their dining room.

“Oh, my God,” Selene cried out when I appeared at the grandiose dining room table, seated directly next to her.

I reached over and snagged a piece of very rare steak from her china plate. “Oh, filet,” I murmured. “My favorite.”

Lucien’s mother, Lucienna, held her hand to her chest as she watched me suspiciously. “Franklin, please. Do something.”

Franklin Chambers was Lucien’s father, the only member of the family I’d not yet met. He was a practitioner of the dark arts, a sorcerer, some claimed. Here at the Chambers’ dinner table, however, he looked like nothing more than a distinguished business man.

Lucien resembled him greatly, I had to say. Both possessed the same finely chiseled facial features and tall height, though Lucien had his mother’s dark features. The elder Chambers had salt-and-pepper hair and light eyes.

Franklin Chambers was not to be underestimated, however.

I learned this when I felt a jolt of power coming from him. “Leave,” he commanded.

I squared my shoulders. “No.”

Lucienna joined in with her husband in trying to dismiss me. “You are not welcome here, succubus. Whether in your spirit form, or your true self, you must go. ”

Ahh, so they knew what I was. Did they also know Lucien and Dunne had made me this way?

“How is this happening?” Selene asked.

She scooted away from me. Wise move. I was still angry with her, though not as terribly as I should’ve been. After all, she was Lucien’s parents’ pawn, and a pawn of her own family, too.

Lucienna kicked back and lit a long, slender cigarette. “Franklin,” she began on an exhale, “it would seem our son has been up to no good.”

“Clearly,” Frank agreed.

So, they knew how I’d become this way.

Some bickering commenced about how to handle this turn of events, until I slammed my hand down on the heavy wood table. “Enough,” I said. “I am what I am now. And there is nothing you can do about it.”

Silence descended. They knew I was right.

“Okay, then.” I adjusted the bodice of my gown when I caught Lucien’s father staring at my partially exposed chest. Gross.

Back on track, I went on, “Here’s what’s going to happen—”

“Oh, this should be rich,” Lucienna muttered.

I ignored her. “Lucien is not going to be party to any pact you made before he was even born.”

“Impossible!” Frank roared at me.

I whipped my hand toward him and his mouth was suddenly bound shut. I liked this level of sheer power. It was going to suck to have to give some of it back when I returned to Lucien and Dunne. But alas, the power among us had to remain balanced, or all sorts of harm would come, like the harm these people planned to inflict on society for their own gain if they were to possess this level of strength.

“Yeah, not going to happen,” I scoffed.

“It will happen.” Lucienna’s dark eyes bore into me. “And there is nothing you can do about it.”

“It’s already decided,” I replied calmly. “With me now as strong as Lucien, you can’t fight us.”

“You will still be doomed,” Lucienna warned. “There’s always a cost.”