Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20)(55)

Nate shrugged. “I’ll text him and tell him we’re taking his car. He gave me his keys earlier and he’s already too drunk to drive. With any luck, he’ll be sober enough before dawn to demater—”

A loud growling sound brought both of their heads around to the intersection of roading beside the club. A vehicle was coming about the corner with such speed that its tires squealed, its shiny black body and darkened windows like a harbinger of evil.

“Get down!” someone said.

Surprised by the commentary, Rahvyn glanced to her right. The human man who had granted them access unto the club’s building dropped to the honed stone underfoot, laying himself out facedown.

“Sire?” she inquired as she reached out to him. “Are you ill—”

Over the roar of the car’s engine, three sharp sounds rang out, one after another, choo, choo, choo. This was followed by a loud shout, and she looked up. At the opposite end of the building, a human male in a dark coat, who seemed to have come around that other corner, covered his head and stumbled back. After finding his footing, he dove for cover as the black car increased its velocity upon the straightaway, the shooter ducking down behind a blackened window that was rising.

“Rahvyn?”

As Nate said her name, she patted at the human who was on the ground. “Sire? Are you okay? Nate, we best call for help. He is not responding—”

“Rahvyn…”

“We need to get aid.” She twisted around. “What is the number they call—”

Nate was standing over her with the strangest expression on his face. “Help.”

“Yes, we need to get some…”

His hands were trembling as they went to the hem of his sweatshirt. When he lifted the bottom up, she frowned. There was a red dot on the white t-shirt underneath.

The dot was getting bigger. Fast.

“Nate?”

He fell to the ground upon his knees, the sweatshirt still wadded up in his hands. His eyes clung to hers, fear dilating his pupils.

“Rahvyn,” he whispered.

She screamed, even as she abruptly could not hear anything. And as he slumped to the side, she lunged for him. She got there too late to keep him from landing hard, landing as if he were lifeless.

“No!” she yelled. “No!”





CHAPTER NINETEEN




The landscape Balz found himself in was desolate as far as his eyes could see, nothing but obsidian sand beneath his feet and black clouds roiling overhead. As red lightning licked the underside of the sky’s thick cover, a strange, troubling wind blew in from the horizon, ruffling his hair.

“So Lover Boy is back, I see.”

Balz closed his eyes at the sound of the demon’s voice, but if he wanted to shut the sight of Devina out, it wasn’t going to help. He saw everything just the same whether his lids were up or down—and that was when he knew he was inside his mind. And he wasn’t the only one who was there.

Devina stepped in front of him. She was wearing a long white dress that was like a waterfall, and in the odd wind, her brunette hair seethed around her shoulders in a way that reminded him of snakes.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” She laid her red-tipped fingers on his bare chest as if she were claiming him. “I’ve missed you.”

He looked down and saw that he was completely naked.

“And I know you’ve missed me.”

Something hit his back lightly. A drop of rain. And then there was another drop. And another. A stream of them now.

Blood was falling from the black clouds and landing on his skin, and he watched as if from a great distance as his torso began to stripe with red. The sanguine wash stung wherever it came into contact, and he had a thought that it was like her red nails had scratched him all over.

“Kiss me,” the demon demanded.

The rain did not touch her. It was as if there were an invisible umbrella above her, the discharge from the storm diverting from her head and that white dress.

A wedding dress, he realized. Like the human women wore at their altar.

“Kiss me.”

Leaning into him, the demon tilted her head back and parted her lips. From under a veil of heavy eyelashes, her black eyes glowed with a heat that made his stomach churn. She was ugly in a way that defied the eye. She was evil in a way that decried the soul.

When he didn’t respond, she lifted a brow.

“Playing hard to get?” Her husky laugh was an auditory caress. “That’s not your style, even though you hate me. Like I’ve always said, one of my favorite things about fucking you is the way your body betrays your mind and your heart. It’s a beautiful sacrifice of principles, especially when you come inside of me.”

With that terrible smile, she sank slowly to her knees, the bright white gown pooling on top of the red puddles that were forming on the black ground, the satin skirt floating on top of the blood.

“Fine, I’ll take care of things.” Staring up at him, she slipped her hands over the curves of his hip bones. “I like this view. And so do you.”

She licked her bright red lips, her pink tongue taking its time with the route.

Fuck that, Balz did not enjoy the view. He hated the view, especially as she opened her mouth.

His cock was flaccid as she sucked it down, and the warmth, the slickness, the pull, made tears come to his eyes. He did not want this. He never had.