Ecstasy Unbound (The Guardians of the Realms Series) Page 4

  She needed to blow off some steam. When she was done in the office, she’d seek her brothers out and help with kicking demon possessed ass. They’d go back out with her if she asked, since she knew they were home already from their after work activities. They’d all been pumped on adrenaline from the last job and needed to get out. Russia and the clean-up after had been ugly. She wasn’t sure if they had already done some demon possessed hunting. They helped the Guardians with those assholes, but stayed clear of the Guardians themselves. Not wanting the one way ticket to Tetartos. They were lucky that Uri and his brethren hadn’t actively hunted, or attempted to banish, the three of them.

  Erik and Vane, needed to feed the lion half’s need for a hunt and the possessed were a safe and challenging target. The possessed were pumped up on demon powers. It made them stronger, but also burned the bodies out fairly rapidly. Not fast enough, though, most of the time. Alex didn’t possess the same animal DNA as her brothers, she’d been born before their father had been taken and experimented on by Apollo and Hermes. Even without an animal half she still needed a challenge. Beating the crap out of the weak human traffickers in their mercenary work was kind of like killing a rabid rat. It needed done, but was generally messy and pathetically easy.

  She tilted her head. Maybe the reason she shadowed Uri was that she was rebelling against her brother’s needs to protect her. But she was centuries old, didn’t that just make her pitiful? Not for long. Alex was determined that someday she’d find the answers to her shield issues and experience what those humans had under Uri and Gregoires’ skilled hands. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had a bad feeling that if she ever took a lover she’d close her eyes and picture Uri gorgeous face. Her shoulders fell.

  Her long black hair was finally dry when she reached to turn on her… What the…?

  Chapter 3

  “Damn him. I should teleport his bloody heap right in the middle of the jungle. I’m a good person, I can feed animals in need,” Alex muttered, while almost ripping her clothes in her haste to dress, before stomping barefoot through her suite out into the marble hallway that led around to Vane’s room. She became more and more angry as she went, thinking all the while that she was sure she had a national geographic lying around somewhere with good pictures of places to drop his ass.

  She hadn’t spared a glance at the beautiful Venetian textured walls as she stomped through the hall. Their suite took up the entire top two floors of the building, and was done mostly in cream with a lot of metal, including the very modern wall sconces that lined all of the halls. She grumbled some more as she passed by the main living space with the floor to ceiling windows and glass doors that opened to a huge balcony. It was perfect for teleporting unseen, as their building was the tallest on that side. She visualized tossing her brother over the edge. She moved through to the opposite side. The pure openness of the windows to her left was separated by a massive cream stone fireplace.

  Fuming, Alex took a right, down another hallway of marble leading to the last door to the left. She knew they would be home, had heard them, they always came back to clean up after man whoring or demon hunting. Kicking in the door with a resounding crack made her feel marginally better. Wood splintered, while a sliver of satisfaction ran through her at the thought of the nice hole that would be there, right where the doorknob meets wall. Yeah, Mr. OCD, have fun with your mess, heh.

  “That’s it, Vane!!!! The next time you take my straightener, I’m going to plug it in and attach it to your balls, so help me…” Most likely he’d heard every word muttered under her breath during Alex’s rant from her bathroom to his overly pristine bedroom. Not a speck of dust dared exist in his majesty, Lord Perfection’s presence.

  She stood, one hand on her hip, the other out palm up, one foot tapping while waiting for the ass to apologize and hand over her straightener. All six foot seven of girly beast with beautifully straightened, shoulder length, sun kissed hair had the nerve smirk. She glared; sure smoke was coming out of her ears. It was not the day to test her, she was working with one nerve left intact and it was fraying… fast.

  Oh, hell no, he did not just smirk again. Straightener to the balls would be too kind. Alex launched across the small bedroom. He’d braced in expectation of the attack so he didn’t budge, just grunted, as she made contact in her attempted to tackle.

  Laughing uncontrollably, he tossed her to the bed and doubled in hysterics, “I can’t believe you’re flying off the handle over this, it’s a hair thing, not some of your precious shoes.”

  “It’s my straightener! Why do you always have to steal my stuff??? You have your own!” Why was that concept so stinking foreign to him? Her stuff was her stuff. It had its own place, not reeking of his man product. She’d made him order his own straightener the last time that happened. Somehow, he kept breaking them or something.

  “What’s going on?” Erik asked as he leaned in the doorway, his arms crossed over the wide expanse of his chest. His short, black hair stuck out in every direction, yet looked perfect on him with his piercing ice blue eyes. Yeah, her hair products were safe from one brother. Erik came from the direction of his own rooms down the same hallway. An aura of command surrounded him even doing something as mundane as standing in a doorway. The twins were as opposite in looks as they were in personalities. Erik was so much more serious.

  Vane answered with a grin. “PMS.”

  Smarter that time, she teleported onto Vane’s back with an arm around his neck ready to choke the life out of him. He’d live… she just wanted to inflict some pain on behalf of out sized sisters everywhere. Through her haze of anger, that all dreaded flicker of vision started, the only warning she ever got.

  “Vane, get her on the bed!!!” She felt air, then a bounce onto soft bedding, before registering a thump and several things crashing. It was likely Vane hadn’t cleared her shield in time and had gotten thrown into the wall before her essence floated into someone else.

  Bright spots filled the sides of her vision from the relentless stream of overhead lighting. Alex saw, through the female’s body she inhabited, that they were in a metal room, no indications of where. The harsh stench of sterilizing chemicals burned her host’s nostrils and her skin itched from the cleaning they’d likely given her. Just as the other “head hops” she’d done recently… Alex knew what she’d see and hear next.

  Elizabeth, fanged bitch, who worked with Cyril, the asshole. Her flaming hair swished wildly around her shoulders while she giggled freakishly. The crazy redhead liked to taunt her victims, flashing her fangs, playing on the vampire fears even though her race, the Aletheia, did not drink blood unless it was to take another’s memories. Alex’s host would not understand that, and it would just upset and confuse her more if Alex tried to explain it in the female’s head. Cyril ignored the bitch’s antics and performed some kind of medical tests on the body she inhabited.

  Alex felt her host attempting to tune it out. Exhaustion and the drugs in her system were muffling the sounds coming from outside her head. The cold metal against her bare back made her muscles ache, adding yet another layer of misery to being naked and having samples taken from every part of her body, inside and out. Warmth trickled down the sides of her wrists where she’d fought against the shackles holding her down, and the cuts ran with blood.

  Alex melded more closely into her host, feeling and hearing her every thought, becoming the female, feeling every emotion, every sensation.

  Tears of frustration streamed uncontrollably down her face, she barely saw her tormentors through the blur, yet the dark evil behind the man’s eyes would forever be imprinted in her mind… Eyes that looked almost purple, but so dark it was hard to tell. His face was back lit by the bright lights shining down relentlessly from behind the bastard’s bent head, making details somewhat difficult.

  Her host focused on his face and cringed at the thought that he would come across sculpted and handsome if one didn’t see the inhumane indifference of a sociopa
th lurking behind those deceptively beautiful eyes. It was scary to think she might have found a monster like that attractive before she’d been taken and violated. But, wasn’t that the way with psychopaths?

  Even worse was the red haired woman… For the hours since she’d been kidnapped neither had said why they taken her. Just enjoyed abusing her body any way they wanted. The man was more detached and scientific. As if she were a frog or cat in a biology class, meant only for dissection, not an actual living human being. The woman, vampire? Fuck, was that even possible or was it weird dental work? But there she did it again. She seemed to like to flash those fangs. The vamp was a sadistic bitch, just plain bat shit crazy.

  She glimpsed movements, heard the occasional beeping of machines, the traipsing of med techs or whatever you’d call them, along with the occasional whimper or scream of a “patient.” Jesus, what were they doing to them? Why lab tests? The implications of the types of testing made her panicky. Her body was still lethargic from the drugs they pumped into her system, she had no idea how long she’d been out.

  It was almost like her thoughts were coming out in slow motion, then a voice inside her head started insisting on more information, but it was so hard to focus.

  Alex knew from the female’s thoughts she was confused by her questions, mixed with the drugs, but she needed information if they had any hope of finding her. Not that she’d been able to help the other victims or even return to them since her powers were so out of her control, but she had to try.

  The female thought about how she’d fought and asked questions of her captors for what felt like hours to no avail, getting no information on why she was taken or what they wanted with her.

  The voice wanted her name? Was it insanity?

  Her name was Sam...

  When was she taken?

  She’d just gotten to her apartment door. It was… Friday night after work. She remembered the shock of being grabbed from behind by strong arms, before a sharp sting to her neck… drugged.

  Again, the distinctly female voice in her mind was whispering for more information. The voice was sympathetic… calming… She’d lost her mind or the drugs were overtaking her again. Were they hallucinogens? Did it matter? If that was a distraction her mind created for her, she didn’t care, it was keeping her from the hysterics that wanted to take her over. Sam knew the redhead would love that and she couldn’t bear making the bitch happy.

  She answered the soothing, female sounding voice. She’d been to the gym right after work, picked up some groceries at the store down the street from her apartment, getting home around nine p.m. Friday night. She’d planned on a quiet weekend at her apartment.

  Her address??

  She said the street and apartment name but couldn’t remember the exact address. She was lucky the apartment number made it through her fuzzy mind.

  It had been dark and she had dropped her grocery bag when she was grabbed. It had happened so fast, the drugs hit her so hard… She’d never even had time to try and defend herself. That first burst of semi consciousness after being drugged at her apartment awarded her a brief, hazy, view of rock walls and black clad figures surrounding her chanting in firelight. She’d heard voices of men and women, but saw no faces.

  That was something Alex hadn’t seen with the others. None had been conscious at the beginning.

  Sam recalled the faint smell of damp rock and dirt as she lay on the cold ground, the chanting picked up speed, then a bright light filled her vision. The air from her lungs vacated so quickly it had left her disoriented, followed by pure nothingness as her body felt as if it flew apart then reformed again. It was so fast… She came to, struggling to breathe air back into her system. Spots had filled her vision, and nausea had hit so hard that she was glad she was lying in the fetal position.

  Sam had barely registered that all the others were gone, and in their place were two huge men dressed in leather. She vaguely remembered thinking she had to be dreaming before she succumbed to blackness.

  Memories stopped running in Sam’s mind with the pain of a sharp stinging cut being carved just above the nipple of her left breast. The jolt of sensation brought her back to reality with a sharp rasp. The cut, and the resounding laughter accompanying it, brought a glimpse of pure evil she wished never to see again. Pale grey eyes above her, sparkled with madness. The light skin and flaming hair surrounded moist red lips, opened, to display sharp fangs within inches of Sam’s face. Sam couldn’t see beyond the unsettling view of the evil bitch in front of her.

  In the back of her mind she realized that her male captor had to have left her again after the blood he’d taken and the tests he’d performed, most humiliating in their invasiveness. Just another violation, like not clothing her. She’d been naked since she woke up in the nightmare labs. Making it obvious she was no more than an animal to them.

  A split second later she felt warmth moving through her veins and realized she’d been dosed through the IV in her arm. She welcomed the darkness, the only peace she would get, away from monsters that didn’t exist…

  Chapter 4

  Alex came to, gasping for air, then, promptly doubled over to vomit on Erik’s favorite boots. Ugh, she’d buy him another pair.

  He held her close, not seeming to care. His warmth soothed her some.

  She felt the queasiness ease slightly. It happened every time she came back to herself. Well, maybe not the throwing up part. There was about a fifty-fifty chance of that. Erik rocked her gently as if she were a child, not a full grown female. She let him, it felt nice and the comfort seemed to sooth him as well. Since he so rarely showed emotion, she found she liked to milk it when she got the chance. She gained control of her vision slowly, the spots dissipating. Erik’s woodsy scent was added grounding for her. Vane sat to her other side, she felt his big hand rubbing her back as he handed her a bottle of water.

  Her brothers, though twins, couldn’t be more opposite. But, they were in complete accord while sweetly soothing her. She soaked in their love and affection. They struggled with all her crappy power issues too. It had been blatantly obvious when they were on their last job.

  Vane continued to rub her back. He was just like his name. He needed to have everything perfect. Body, office, motorcycles, even as a child he was like that. All it took was for Erik to move Vane’s things and he’d go wild. Next thing you knew they were rolling around in the lion form they’d gotten from their father.

  The twins had been born after her mother, Athena, rescued their father from Apollo and Hermes’ labs. They conceived Erik and Vane shortly after her father’s return, and Alex, decades old at the time, was thrilled. Alex adored them from the beginning. She would play with them as cubs or children, but she always wished she was able to change forms and roll around like they had, or climb trees, but she had been born before her father was changed in the labs. Before he was given the animal DNA that allowed him to change into lion form.

  Erik was bigger than Vane by a couple of inches in his lion form, and dark to Vane’s light, the only similarity in their physical appearances, other than supreme male beauty, was their human height of six foot seven.

  The difference in their appearance was nothing to the differences in their personalities. Erik had always been the more playful of the two when they’d been children. But, after Alex had been attacked, while the twins were barely adults, things changed. Two years later their parents were sent to sleep for the sins of the Gods, and they had been on their own.

  At the time, Erik, only two decades old, yet still minutes older that his twin, moved into their father’s role. He grew more fierce and serious. To balance his out his twin, Vane became more of a prankster. She shook her head. She had seen in both brothers’ eyes that they looked at her as theirs to protect. They had gotten their bearing in the new era without the Gods. Found they needed to avoid the Guardians if they were to stay on Earth. Since Alex knew they were meant to do something in the Realm of humanity, they needed to avoid Exile
.

  She lifted the water bottle to her dry lips with shaky hands. Taking a sip, she savored the cool slide of it down her throat along with the comforting warmth of her family.

  Gods, her head hurt. Ugh, she felt not only weakened from the hop into someone else’s mind, but also laxity in her limbs that came with the shield’s draining effects. Alex hated to be taken into the minds of victims, feeling what they felt, sharing their bodies and thoughts. What she hated the most was not having control of her freaking powers.

  “I know I say it every time, but it’s so frustrating not to be able to filter through their thoughts. I could learn so much more if I wasn’t forced to cajole the information to the forefront of their minds. I hate only seeing and hearing everything in current time. If I could just dig in… Why would the asshole want Mageias?” They held elemental abilities and were able to work a few spells, nothing exceptional. What use were the evolved mortals to Cyril?

  “You’re doing what you can. Don’t beat yourself up for something that’s beyond your control.” Erik said, his voice a rough rasp that she loved, it was so much like their father’s.

  “I get it. It’s just frustrating.” Her headache was making her crabby. She perked up a little when she realized she had good news. “I got something new from this one. Sam was her name, and she actually saw people with black robes and heard chanting before she felt being teleported to Tetartos. She didn’t understand it, but I could feel it in the memories she shared. She was too drugged to decipher the chanting, but it had to be some kind of transfer spell. At least we know that a Mageia Coven on Earth is helping send the females to Cyril and Elizabeth in Tetartos Realm. The jerks were still in Tetartos, or why would a Mageia Coven need to spell a teleport? We need to get the information to Conn.”