Save My Soul (A Paranormal Romance: Preternaturals Book 2) Read online

  Still, the injuries came as a shock. Luc looked human, and humans didn’t have claws or teeth like that. She schooled her features into the hard line they’d been set in before.

  “I think it would be very wise if you stuck by that story. If I were you, I wouldn’t tell anyone what really happened.” She started for the door and paused, turning back. “Oh, and Marsh? If you ever see me again, I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing. You turn and walk the other direction. ’Kay?”

  He nodded as well as he could, and Anna closed the door softly behind her.

  ***

  Luc stood in the library, poring over books Cain had brought him years before from the demon dimension. There had to be something to explain what the hell was going on. He was still shaken by his behavior. He’d never felt this mindlessly possessive of another person before.

  He’d scared the shit out of her, and with the curse in place, he had no power to make her stay with him where she’d be safe.

  “Yeah. Safe,” he muttered, taking another drink. He’d love to be drunk right now. It was possible, but a demon needed a whole lot of hard liquor. All Luc had at his disposal was a wine cellar. Not nearly good enough.

  Maybe it would be best for both of them if she didn’t come back. He’d only heard about bonds like this. He’d never actually done one.

  After Cain had gotten near her, the only thought on his mind was doing something to protect her. His instincts had kicked in and taken it from there. He hadn’t thought there would be consequences. Or side effects.

  It took searching through three different books before he finally found one that offered any information on the bond.

  “Fuck me.” He slammed the book shut and put his head in his hands. He still hadn’t found the details he needed, only one book with a brief mention in a footnote of the type of blood mingling he’d performed. It could be used as a first step to a mating. No wonder he was feeling so possessive and sappy about her.

  Luc tamped down the voice in his head that said he’d been fixated on her for weeks. That it wasn’t the bond. He wondered if the ritual was having an effect on her as well.

  He thought back to how he’d begged Beatrice to give him her soul and wondered if something like this would have let him keep her forever. When he’d originally researched mating, he’d missed it because it was a strategy that had been lost in the lore of their people, buried in unrelated books for centuries. He’d been looking in the wrong place. He should have dug deeper. If he had, he might not have ended up trapped in the house in the first place.

  ***

  There was no evening service at St. Francis, but the door was kept unlocked for those who wanted to come pray or have a quiet, peaceful place away from the world to escape to. Anna carried the box in and put it down by the altar, then lit a candle in one of the red votive holders at the front. Gregorian chants emanated from a speaker in the balcony.

  She curled up on a pew and allowed herself to relax as the music washed over her. Surely Cain couldn’t come inside a church. It seemed the church was one of the few truly safe places for her. Seeing Marshal had provided some closure, but it also made the threat of returning home seem too great to seriously consider yet.

  But you will go back, a voice in her mind whispered. She wanted to deny that thought, but recognized the truth of it. As insane as it was. The mark held some sort of power over her now.

  Luc had been threatened when the priest sensed the bond. That was enough to let her know Father Jeffries wasn’t just some random boob with a shiny prayer book. Whether it came from a god somewhere or just an inner sense, he had a gift. Maybe untapped and underdeveloped, but it was there. If she allowed him to help her, what then?

  Hours passed in the stillness of the church while Anna tried to think through her options and tried not to have naughty, wrong thoughts about Luc. That was definitely a bad idea.

  It was almost sunset when her hand started to burn. Was the demon doing something with the bond? Using it like a magical leash to reel her back to him?

  In the sanctuary, she’d slipped into an almost trance-like state, floating somewhere inside the soft, comforting candlelight and chanting. Faced with the prospect of spending the night in the house with Luc, she had the urge to find the priest and do whatever she had to do to rid herself of the demon’s influence once and for all. But the danger from Cain loomed over her, somehow worse than Luc. She wasn’t convinced Father Jeffries could protect her from the greater evil.

  Chapter Nine

  The front porch light was on when Anna returned, still arguing with herself for allowing the burning from the bond to drag her back.

  She had a death grip on her house key when the door swung open. Luc had to start with the special effects. He couldn’t stay out of her way and let her come inside on her own. Instead of going in, she sat in one of the rocking chairs, pulled a book from her purse, and pretended to read while the door stood open and ignored.

  At least her hand wasn’t burning now. Maybe she could sleep on the porch. Best of both worlds.

  Fifteen minutes passed before she steeled herself enough to look up. Luc scowled at her through the window. She turned back to the book, willing her heartbeat to steady, breathing slowly in and out.

  Moments later, he was looming in the doorway. If not for the barrier, he could have reached out and pulled her inside. She had to keep up a running stream of commentary in her head to reassure herself that was the case. That she was safe out here. When he finally spoke, she jumped anyway.

  “Anna, get your ass in the house right now!”

  She pretended to focus on her book. She’d managed to read one paragraph. About four hundred times.

  “Stop bullying me,” she said between clenched teeth, her eyes still on the page.

  “I am quickly losing patience,” he snarled.

  “Yes, and what are you going to do about it?” She dropped the book and came to stand mere inches from the threshold. She didn’t know what it was about him that made her throw her self-preservation instincts out the window, but he pissed her the hell off. After going to see Marshal and getting some of her fire back, she wasn’t coming home to take shit from another bully. Her heart was in her throat as she watched his face darken.

  “I told you I could have you brought to me.” His voice was calm.

  The calm scared her more than the snarling. “Cain said he wasn’t coming back for awhile. For all we know, he’s never coming back.” She knew even as she said it, that it wasn’t true.

  “Get in the house. Now.”

  Anna was tempted to taunt him with a make me but his comment earlier about her being a child still stung. Not that he acted that much more mature for his age. The several hundred years age difference wasn’t all that noticeable if you asked her.

  “Not until you calm down. Luc, please, you’re scaring me. I saw Marshal, and I can’t come into the house if I think you might . . . ”

  “I wouldn’t.” The angry mask was gone as quickly as it had surfaced. “I don’t beat on women. That bastard had that coming.”

  She bit her lip and looked away. “I know.”

  His voice softened, and he moved away from the door. “Please come inside.”

  She waited a few more minutes until she finally gained the nerve to step over the threshold. He wasn’t in the entryway or living room, unless he was pulling the disappearing act. But she didn’t think he was doing that either because she couldn’t feel him. Ever since the bond, she could sense his presence when he was near. It was something she’d put in a file folder of things she wasn’t thinking about.

  She weaved her way through the house until she found him in the library with a book in his hand. He tensed when she walked in and sat in the chair opposite from him.

  “You read?”

  He snorted. “Of course I read. What else is there to do besides watch television and feed?”

  She didn’t know how it happened. One moment they were both sitting aw
kwardly in opposite chairs, the next he’d taken her hand in his, turning her palm up to inspect it. He stared for a moment as if he couldn’t quite believe his mark was still there, then he released her and sank back into his chair in obvious relief.

  “You are threatened by that priest. You know he can free me from you.”

  “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t need to redo it. I was worried when you were gone so long. Cain has no conscience. The creepy blood ritual, as you call it, is the only thing protecting you from him when I’m not with you. I don’t know if that priest of yours could undo it. He shouldn’t have even been able to sense it.”

  They sat in silence awhile longer, then Luc spoke again. “I have to feed.” The timbre of his voice sent goosebumps running down Anna’s arm.

  A small part of her thrilled at the idea of him feeding from her, but another part still recoiled in anxiety. Her breathing was shallow when he pulled her into his lap.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. Relax.” His voice was so seductive, and for a moment she thought he might be using whatever demon magic he had to lower her resistance.

  Her head fell back as he ran his fingers through her hair and over her neck. It was so much easier to let him do whatever it was he was doing. She was already bonded to him. How much worse could it get?

  “Luc, stop,” she said with a half-hearted sigh.

  “You want it. Just let yourself feel.”

  The words so similar to her dream seemed to smack her across the face. Anna scrambled out of his lap. “I can’t do this with you.”

  “Why the hell not? You know I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She hoped he wouldn’t hurt her. A part of her believed he wouldn’t. He’d gone to a lot of trouble so far to keep her alive. But there were no guarantees. She might not be a religious person, but that didn’t mean years of childhood indoctrination hadn’t made their mark. Demon equaled bad. She was fairly certain even nonspiritual people could agree on that point.

  “It’s not just that,” she hedged.

  “Then what is it?”

  “I don’t do casual sex, okay? I can’t sleep with someone I don’t love. I’m not wired that way. I know you probably think that’s foolish and naïve and old-fashioned, that I’m some kind of prude . . . ”

  He laughed, interrupting her speech. “I don’t think you’re a prude.”

  The soft way he was looking at her almost had her running back into his arms, but the consequences of a little pleasure with him were too serious.

  “I can’t get involved with you because I wouldn’t be able to share you. You have to feed every day, but you couldn’t feed from me every day. That equals sharing, and I can’t do that.”

  He sighed. “As much as I can appreciate your feelings on this matter, my ability to behave in a somewhat civilized manner hinges on my getting fed regularly. If I don’t feed I could lose control later. I don’t want to do that. Cain means it. He won’t come back until I’ve fed.”

  “He wants you to use the mind powers on me,” she said, realization dawning.

  “Yes. It would appear I’ve been in the presence of humans too long. According to him, I’m too empathetic now. He wants me to be the demon he knew before all this.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because you’re different. I can’t just seduce you the way I can others without the mind tricks. You’re stubborn and not exactly what one would call a slut. He knows you wouldn’t give in before I lost control and enthralled you. And by that time I wouldn’t be able to stop.”

  She felt trapped and resentful for the trapping. One way or the other it seemed some demon would have her. She thought about staying in her father’s big empty house for awhile, but she was afraid Cain would find her and that the bond might not be strong enough to stop him. Besides, the scar would scream at her and never let her sleep if she and Luc weren’t under the same roof.

  “Luc, I can’t let you . . . ”

  His eyes were pleading. “Please don’t do this, Anna. I really don’t want to hurt you. Just give in.”

  The next words left her mouth before she could stop them. “I’ll bring your meals until Cain comes back.”

  Now she knew how to shut Luc up. Just say something completely ridiculous. He didn’t speak for a full minute, making her offer sound more insane and just plain sinister the longer it sat there without a response.

  “I’m sorry, what? I must not have heard you right.”

  “I said I’ll bring you women.” That really did sound bad when she said it out loud . . . yet again.

  “Why?” He hadn’t moved from the chair since Anna had jumped off his lap.

  She paced. Now that she’d said it––twice––it sounded even worse. “Well, what are my options here? You’ve tied me to you. I could try to get it undone, but then I’m bait for Cain and his groupies of doom. I could just stay away from you, but we both know Cain will return, and he’ll bring me right back because you’re feeling all possessive. Especially if you’re starved by then. Even if I wanted to, I can’t sleep with you because I told you I can’t share. It would hurt too much.”

  “You could just burn the house down.”

  Anna gave him a withering look. “And then you’re free to feed anyway. At least this way I know you aren’t killing them.”

  He threw his arms in the air. “Go ahead and justify it. I’ve never seen someone so selfish. You’re willing to give women to me to fuck so you don’t have to burn your precious house to the ground, and you’re going to have to anyway.”

  “This is temporary. Cain will be back, and I’ll find another way to get you out of here.”

  He laughed. “You’re every demon’s dream, little girl. I don’t even have to be evil to get you to bring me innocent young souls.”

  Luc didn’t try to stop her when she left. Why would he? She was bringing him take-out.

  He should disgust her. She was disturbed by exactly how much he didn’t. He couldn’t help what he was. It was herself she was disgusted with. She should just leave him and not come back, get Father Jeffries to remove the mark, and get the hell out of dodge as far from Golatha Falls as possible.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t stand the idea of Luc starving, wasting away in that house waiting on Cain to come back and feed him again. What if he never came back?

  Despite the circumstances, Anna couldn’t just start delivering college co-eds, drunk and slutty or not. She changed her direction and headed for the interstate.

  It was after midnight when she finally returned from Atlanta with a car crammed with five prostitutes. It was a decision she could live with. One she could justify. She didn’t want to think too hard about the fact that she’d just created a harem for the man whose bed she wanted to be in.

  They had sex for money and probably never got any pleasure from it. If she knew anything about the moans she’d heard in the house, she knew Luc never left a woman unsatisfied. Plus they had a place to live that didn’t involve some smarmy pimp that would only beat them and take their money.

  The front door opened as soon as her hand touched the knob. Luc looked disheveled and sexier than he had a right to. The second he saw her, the anger drained from his face.

  “My God, Anna, I thought something had happened to you, or that you changed your mind and weren’t coming back. You didn’t do it, did you? I knew you couldn’t.”

  She could see the way he fought the lust, and what her failure to bring him dinner meant.

  “No, I did. I just couldn’t keep bringing you different people. It just felt wrong, so . . . I um . . . ” She mumbled the last part.

  “You what?”

  “I sort of got you a harem of prostitutes.”

  She could tell he was trying not to grin at her.

  “They know,” she said.

  His features darkened. “They know what exactly?”

  “They know what you are. One of them is part Romani. She sensed something was off. I w
anted them to know what they were getting themselves into. They had the right to know and make a choice about it.”

  He sighed. “Bring them in.”

  “Stop scowling. You’ll freak them out.”

  Anna motioned out to the car for the girls. When they were all inside, she got the introductions out of the way. “This is Renee, Olivia, Karen, Susan, and Maria.”

  The first four were bottle blonds with miniskirts and makeup too dark for their complexions. Maria stood out from the rest. She was dark-complected with long raven hair.

  The brunette extended a hand to Luc. She was the only one of the group not intimidated by him. “Ironic,” she said, her lips twisting in a cruel grin.

  “What is?” he asked with some trepidation.

  “A whore fucking whores.” She didn’t cringe from him when he growled. She only laughed, a light tinkling sound in the stillness of the room.

  “Okaaay,” Anna said, moving to stand between Luc and Maria. “I’m going to show you girls your rooms, then I’m going to bed.”

  “We each get our own rooms? In this house?” Renee squealed.

  Anna smiled. She hated this plan, but it had its good sides. She got the girls settled in their rooms, then retreated to her own, Scarlett and Rhett sticking close to her heels. The cats seemed as uncomfortable with her house guests as she was.

  She swiped at the tear tracking down her cheek. It was important to remember what Luc was, that he couldn’t change, and she could never really have him. It was best not to start with him.

  Beatrice’s behavior was understandable. It had been wrong and stupid and suicidal, but Anna understood. It was hard to dislike Luc. She couldn’t imagine how hard it was once a physical relationship started.

  She took a hot bath and put earplugs in before climbing into bed.

  . . . Death. Destruction. Mayhem. Anna found herself somewhere in the distant past on a cobblestone street lit by torches. The smell of sex was thick on the air.