Sacrifice: Laid Bare (Laid Bare #4)(9)

Without turning around, he chuckled and assured me, “Yes, Lucien, Dahlia will be fine. It’s working already. I gave her more than I intended…and I think you did, as well.”

He turned and eyed me curiously, and I nodded. “Yes. I didn’t mean to, but I lost control.”

“So, Dahlia made us both a little crazy.”

I chuckled. “Seems so.”

Dunne cleared his throat and resumed messing with the fire. “Because of our loss of control, Lucien, Dahlia is now becoming like us more quickly than I’d anticipated. I doubt she’ll even require a second go-round with us both.”

I blew out a relieved breath, while Dunne muttered snarkily, “Much to my chagrin. I was hoping to have her at least once in the way you did.”

I was standing close behind him, and I took a step back so as not to whack him across the head for his forwardness. I couldn’t really blame him, though. To have Dahlia once, in one way, was to want her in all ways.

Sighing, I changed the subject. “So, does this mean Dahlia now knows what we are?”

We were incubi, but strong as f*ck, in every conceivable way.

Dunne shrugged, seemingly unperturbed as he stoked the fire. “Probably,” he stated.

I turned and took a seat on a threadbare and sunken-in sofa, and then proceeded to think things over. I wasn’t feeling nearly as relaxed as Dunne in knowing our secret had been divulged. We weren’t permitted to discuss our true nature ever, which made me all the more apprehensive in knowing it had been revealed.

Oh, well. I supposed it no longer mattered, since Dahlia was becoming one of us as the minutes passed.

“Exactly,” Dunne said, standing.

“Hey.” I lunged forward and grabbed his arm, spinning him around to face me. “Just because I shared Dahlia with you doesn’t mean you get a free pass inside my head any time you want.”

Dunne shoved me away. “Don’t lose sight of who’s helping whom here,” he warned.

“Or what?”

Dunne’s eyes flashed red and his scars, visible now that his hood was askew, seemed to deepen. Anger coursed through him, and he hissed, “I could still end you.”

He could, yes, but I knew the one thing that would stop him. “Dahlia will kill you if she wakes and finds I’ve been offed by you.”

Dunne bellowed with laughter. “Dahlia possesses only a modicum of the strength I have. I hardly think she’d stand a chance.”

Suddenly, we were both silenced by the sound of a rumble. Like thunder, only louder.

I cocked my head. “Storm coming, you think?”

“I don’t think so,” Dunne murmured. “At least, not the kind you’re thinking.”

More rumbling, and then the front door flew open. Icy air and snow blew in. Dunne and I watched, mesmerized, as flakes joined together to create a small tornado-like presence in the doorway.

We both stumbled backward when a female figure emerged from the tornado. It was Dahlia, or a spirit-form of her. I knew for a fact she was physically still upstairs, asleep.

“Amazing,” Dunne whispered as Dahlia walked toward us. “Perhaps I was wrong. She may very well be stronger than I.”

Dahlia appeared paler than ever, her skin almost translucent. Her swollen breasts spilled over the silky white material of the low-cut gown she was wearing, thus leaving the tips of her ripe, pink nipples exposed. Well, almost, if not for the cover provided by her flowing red hair.

She stopped mere inches from us. As her emerald eyes grew black, Dunne and I collectively wondered what we’d done. Even we could not leave our bodies and take on a spirit-like form. Had we gone too far and given Dahlia too much of our power?

“You have, my loves,” she said, reaching out to us both.

Dunne and I took hold of Dahlia’s outstretched hands, and she allowed us to feel just how incredibly powerful she was at the moment.

“Fuck, Dahlia,” I muttered, impressed.

“Beautiful,” Dunne mused. “We’ve created something incredible, Lucien.”

And we had. I couldn’t disagree.

She squeezed my hand, and then Dunne’s. “I belong to you both now. I will for all eternity. But…” Her eyes held only mine. “It is Lucien who will forever hold my heart.”

“I’m fine with that,” Dunne replied in an uncharacteristically humble manner. “I never intended on making Lucien endure having to share you with me for an indeterminable time.”

“We will have to be together one more time, however,” Dahlia informed us. “All three of us, as one.”

I cocked a brow. “And why is that?”

She turned to me. “The balance is too far shifted to me. I must give some power back to you…and to Dunne.”

“She’s right,” Dunne confirmed.

I didn’t feel angry or irritated. Seeing Dahlia as she was before me, I knew she was right—the balance would have to be restored.

“But first,” Dahlia said, smiling smugly, “I intend to right some wrongs.”

She let go of Dunne’s hand and reached up to lower Dunne’s hood from his head. When he resisted, she said one word: “Don’t.”

He nodded, and then he allowed her to lower his hood the rest of the way. Dahlia passed her hand over his face, making his skin ice over in the places her fingertips touched.