Iniquitous: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 3) Page 3

  I wasn’t sure if it was my delirium kicking in, but the whole thing didn’t seem like a half bad idea. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t make it very far in my condition. Dominic made a face as his gaze swept over my body.

  He was thinking the same thing I was.

  “You need to eat first. We need to build your strength back up before we can attempt any sort of coup.”

  “Is there any food in this place?” I asked doubtfully.

  He nodded. “He feeds his donors very well. I’m sure I could sneak something down to you.”

  My stomach rumbled at the thought of food, but I ignored it. I was too busy frowning at the mention of Engel’s donors. I knew exactly what that meant: humans he was compelling to feed from. And God knows what else.

  “One thing at a time, angel,” answered Dominic, knowing where my thoughts had gone. “You need to save yourself before you start worrying about anyone else.”

  And I intended to do just that.

  “What about the bloodbond? How long do we have until I’m completely under his spell?”

  “Depends,” he said, running his lean fingers along his smooth jawline.

  “On what?”

  “On how powerful he is. How much he takes—how often.”

  “Are we talking weeks or days?” My voice cracked at the tail end of the question.

  “In your current state?” He raised a critical brow as he appraised me. “Days.”

  This was getting grimmer by the minute. Every time we solved one issue, another one popped up to quickly take its place. It was like some demonic game of domino’s I never signed up to play.

  The thought of being compelled by Engel sickened me to no end. I would become his puppet. His willing and devoted servant. I was certain that getting me to hand over the Amulet, and in essence, my entire life, was just the very tip of the iceberg of what he had planned for me.

  And I thought being bonded to Dominic was bad. Ha! I’d choose a bloodbond with Dominic a hundred times over that decrepit—

  “Oh my God.” An idea smacked me right upside the head. “That's it!”

  Dominic was still going on about the rate in which bloodbonds were formed when I slammed my hand against the bars. “Dominic! Are you listening to me? I have an idea!”

  He blinked lazily, unimpressed with my interruption. “I'm listening.”

  “If Engel’s entire plan is resting on forming a bloodbond with me, all we need to do is make sure that doesn't happen.”

  “That's quite an astute observation, angel, but it hardly qualifies as an actual plan.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You didn't let me finish.”

  “You don't need to, love. There's no way to stop a bloodbond. It's inevitable if he feeds on you long enough.”

  “That's why I'm going to form one with you first.”

  “Come again?”

  “You heard me.” I leaned in closer, my eyes landing hard on his. “Every time he feeds on me, you feed on me twice. Whatever he takes from me, you take more. He won't be able to compel me if I'm already bonded to you, right?”

  “Do you have any idea what you're asking?”

  No. “This can work, Dominic. I know it can. We already have a connection and as long as we stay one step ahead of him—”

  “You wouldn’t be able to withstand that kind of blood loss,” he interrupted, his voice a defeated drawl. “Not to mention there's no guarantee what the outcome would be.”

  “I have the Amulet. I can't die, remember?”

  He started shaking his head, but I quickly continued before he could voice his protest.

  “We have to try something, Dominic. I can't be bonded to him or I'm as good as dead. This is the only way. And while he's busy trying to figure out why he can't compel me, we can build up my strength and work on a plan to get me out of here.”

  He didn't say anything, but I could tell he was taking it all in.

  “Look, if you have a better plan, I'm all ears,” I offered, knowing that he didn't.

  “This is dangerous, angel.”

  “I know.”

  “I'm not sure that you do. You're not just playing with fire anymore. This is the whole damn inferno.”

  “That's why I need your help, Dominic. I need to know that you're on my side. I need to know you're with me.”

  His eyes took a long, unhurried look at me, starting from my eyes and then dropping down as far as they could go before making their way back up again. “Yours is the only team I play for, angel,” he said, a boyish half-smile creeping across his face. “Of that, you can be sure.”

  I smiled back at him. I hadn't really meant to, but my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.

  “You do know what this means, don't you?” he asked, crooking an eyebrow at me.

  I rolled my eyes in response. “We're still not friends, Dominic.”

  His grin widened, lighting up his smoldering eyes. “I'd venture to say we're going to be a lot more than that.”

  I swallowed down the knot at the back of my throat.

  “You'll be bonded to me, angel. In every way. Are you prepared to willingly enter into that bond with me? To submit to me entirely?” He blinked impishly as his loaded words speared through my body like a dagger.

  The room suddenly felt as though it were shrinking, closing in on me. My mouth opened to speak, but it was as though the words refused to pass from my lips.

  “You'd be trusting me with the one true thing you have left in this world,” he continued, seeing how deep he could drive his weapon. “Trusting that I’d return it to you when this was all over.”

  “It?” Biting my lip, I tried to ignore the acid rising from the pit of my stomach.

  His eyes sparkled with sin as he lowered his gaze to my mouth. “Your free will, of course.”

  “My free will. Right.” Oh, God, the room was definitely shrinking. And where the hell did all the air go?

  I wasn't sure what to say at that point. Did I trust Dominic? And if so, could I actually trust him with my life? I'd essentially be turning myself into a puppet. Dominic's puppet. All on the slim glimmer of hope that when this was all over and done with, he'd cut the strings and set me free. I wasn't sure if I could trust him. Heck, I wasn't sure there was anyone on this green earth that I would trust with that kind of power over me, but it was the only option I had right now. My only chance at an escape.

  It was him or Engel.

  “I trust you, Dominic,” I said, trying not to trip on the words as they came out of my mouth. Pulling up my cuff bracelet, I raised my hand to the small peeper window and slipped it through the bars, giving him full access to my wrist. “I have no other choice.”

  Something dark and wild flickered through his expression, but I didn’t have the nerve to figure it out.

  “I know you'll do the right thing,” I continued, watching the ravenous look in his eyes as he took my wrist in his hand and exposed his fangs, ready and willing to indulge in me.

  “I'm certainly glad one of us does, angel,” he said and then bit down into my flesh.

  4. BONDED BY BLOOD

  I wasn't sure if it was because of the budding bond I'd already established with Dominic, or just that I was too tired and weak to feel anything, but the pain from his bite never came. The instant his fangs broke through my skin, my entire body surged with rapture, with euphoria, with an unbearable need for more, and all I could do was bow down and obey it. Lurching forward, I pressed myself against the door that no longer held me prisoner and sucked in a breath of air I forgot to let out. Every inch of my body begged for more of my newfound escape, and Dominic happily obliged.

  The cruel world slipped away from me, and with it went all the other bad things in my life; the dungeon I was locked inside of, the putrid smell of death that was always in the air, the agonizing loss of the boy I loved. It was just me and my medicine now. My cure. My only reprieve from the onslaught of pain that rained down on me time and time again.

  In that
brief moment, I was as free as the wind.

  As he drank, tiny black dots began to paint my peripheral, further melting away my view of the doomed world I now lived in. And I welcomed them, basked in them, until there was nothing left but the utterly blinding blackness of a peaceful end. I crumbled through the air and fell to the ground in a pile of lifeless limbs.

  I wanted to shout out at him to take more. To give me more. To break down the door and give me all of it. But I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I was in a catatonic state of nothingness. Of everythingness.

  “I'll be seeing you, angel,” I heard him say as sleep came down on me and took me once again.

  I woke up alone in the dark sometime later. I wasn't sure how much time had gone by, but I felt colder and more alone than ever. Dominic's face flashed through my mind and I found myself wanting for him, knowing he was the only one who could make this nightmare go away again. My eyes scanned the door, hoping I’d find him there watching me sleep, waiting to give me another dose of my medicine, but there was no one there.

  Pulling my knees up to my chest, I hugged myself for warmth and lowered my disappointed eyes to the ground. Before I could release even a single disappointed sigh, something at the floor by the prison door snagged my attention. Bold, vibrant colors scattered on the ground amidst the grimy lifeless palette of dirt and concrete.

  Food!

  I lunged forward on all fours and scurried across the cell like a wild, starving animal. I didn’t even bother to clean it or inspect it; I just snatched up every piece of food I could find on the ground and shoveled it into my mouth. Sweet nectar splashed over my tongue, tickling every taste bud I had and even those I didn't know existed.

  My eyes rolled back in my head as I swallowed my mouthful and then packed in some more, barely chewing as I devoured everything that was in my hands. I never remembered food tasting so good—so magical. In mere seconds, it was all gone, wholly and heartily devoured, and already I was feeling better. Invigorated.

  Hopeful.

  Dominic had come through. He'd actually done it and the realization only made me long for him more.

  Um, long for him? I stopped short and checked myself. What the heck was I saying right now? Holy shit, get it together, Jemma!

  I shook my head as though the gesture could dislodge the foreign thought from my brain.

  It's just the bloodbond, I told myself. Just my mind playing tricks on my heart again. I repeated the truth over and over like some kind of twisted new-age mantra. I needed to remember that, to hold onto it like a life preserver.

  Dominic was a vampire and I, a Slayer. We were not friends. We weren’t anything. Any feelings I may have been feeling for him weren’t real. They weren’t true. I knew that. I believed it.

  And yet every time I blinked my eyes, there he was in the background again, making himself known to me; beckoning me towards him.

  Okay. Fine. Whatever. It doesn't matter right now, I convinced myself as I crawled back to my corner on the ground and pulled my legs up to my chest again. At least there was hope now. Something to hold onto.

  My plan was in full effect and it was going to work. I was going to build up enough strength to fight my way out of this hell hole and get back to Trace. So what if things with Dominic got a little fuzzy along the way? It didn't mean anything. It was all temporary anyway. At least that's what I kept telling myself. The important thing is that Engel would not win. I was going to have the last laugh...

  He just didn't know it yet.

  The next few days weaved into each other like a tapestry of bland, maddening colors, broken up only by the brilliant moments when Dominic would sneak down to the dungeons to see me. I found myself counting down the minutes, the very seconds until I could see him again. At first, I thought it was just my loneliness talking, my isolation propelling me towards him and his unique brand of medicine. But as the days went by, I wasn't so sure anymore.

  His face seemed to flash through my mind almost incessantly, even when I didn't want to think of him. Even when I tried to force myself not to. Nothing was safe from him. Even my prized dreams of Trace slowly became replaced by dreams of Dominic. And, eventually, it didn't even seem to bother me anymore. After all, it was those precious moments with Dominic that made it possible for me to withstand anything here.

  Even being drained by Engel on a daily basis.

  Unfortunately for me, things on that front went from bad to worse. When Engel realized that the bloodbond between us wasn't forming fast enough, he decided to step up his game. His daily feeding turned into two. And then three. Each one growing more and more erratic. More and more desperate. And with every new feeding he inflicted on me, Dominic had to match him—and then one-up him—turning my days into a blur of unconsciousness and semi-conscious states.

  Dominic continued to sneak food down to me, but on most days, it just wasn’t enough. I needed more to be able to heal quick enough to withstand the drainings. More food. More sleep. More everything. Sadly, there wasn't enough of anything in this godforsaken place. There were several occasions where Dominic had asked me if I wanted to drink from him to be able to heal faster and quickly rebuild my strength, but I staunchly refused. I knew Revenant blood had powerful healing capabilities, but I wasn't sure what else it could do or what the consequences of ingesting it would be. For all I knew, a sip of it would turn me into the very fiends I hated most.

  And that was a fate worse than dying.

  “Why must you be so stubborn all the time?” he asked me on one of his nightly visits.

  “I'm not being stubborn, Dominic. I just...don't want to.”

  He narrowed his eyes, examining me. “What are you afraid of?”

  I didn't answer. I wasn't sure how to word it without offending him.

  “Ah, I see.” There was something that passed through his eyes. Something akin to sadness, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it showed itself. “You're afraid of becoming like me,” he concluded when I didn't respond.

  “Well, yeah. I mean, no.” I shook my head and tried again. “I just don’t want to take any more risks.”

  He nodded, steeping in my words. “There are worse things than Turning, you know.”

  “Yeah, like what?” I asked doubtfully.

  “Like not existing at all.” His dark eyes bore into me as he watched me fidget under his intense stare. “Like spending the rest of your days in this dungeon.”

  Just the thought of it sent a cold shiver down my spine. “That may be true, but I don't plan on either one.”

  His lip twitched at the corner as though it wanted to sprout a smile. “I'm quite certain you don't, angel.” After a brief moment, he added, “In any event, your fears are unfounded. You'd have to die first.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “After ingesting my blood. You would have to die in order to complete the transformation, and since you cannot die with the Amulet on, you're safe from turning into this.” There was a definite tinge of offense in his tone.

  I lowered my eyes. “Still, I’d rather not.”

  There was a pause of silence that seemed to go on forever.

  “Suit yourself,” he finally said and then crooked his finger, motioning for me to come closer to him.

  I already knew what was coming. After all, it was my favorite time of the day. The absolute only thing I had to look forward to in this desolate wasteland.

  I shuffled forward until we were standing face to face with only the wooden door between us. I slipped my hand through the bars and willingly exposed my wrist to him.

  He looked back at me, his eyes filled with lust as he surveyed my face, and then my neck. “Oh, how I long to be on the other side of this door.” His eyes stayed pinned on my now pulsating neck vein.

  “Actually, I think it would work better if I was on that side.”

  He didn’t bother meeting my eyes. “Either one would be fine with me, love.”

  With a reverberating click of his teeth, he pick
ed up my hand and brought it to his mouth. I took a breath and held it in as his lips glided over my palm and then to my wrist.

  His teeth broke through the tender skin and I released the air from my lungs as my ever-shrinking world turned vast again. Every care and concern I had slipped away from me like sand in a broken hour glass. Fleeting and flawed and inconsequential. I gripped the bars with my other hand and pressed my body against the door, unconsciously drawing myself closer to him. My lids were already weighty with euphoria and threatening to shut down on me, but I forced them open a moment longer so that I could take in the beautiful angel of death before me.

  How could something so deadly make me feel something so divine?

  It was the question I asked myself time and time again before slipping away into oblivion.

  5. THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN

  My eyes snapped open at the sound of my cell door being cranked open. My two escorts from earlier this week stood at the threshold of the door wearing a pair of matching grins on their faces. An eerie feeling of unease fluttered over me as if my body knew something was coming; something I wasn’t going to like. I noticed they always came down in pairs now, usually Maz and Damon, and sometimes Maz and Baldy—Engle’s right hand man.

  “Wakey, wakey, Hell-girl. It's time to go,” said Maz, the doofus that knocked me out the other night. I'd heard one of the guards refer to him by name and smirked to myself as I remembered how stupid it sounded.

  My eyes shifted to Damon, the blond one with the deep, throaty voice. His black tattoo was peeking out from under his shirt. It looked like an owl’s head, but I couldn’t really make out enough of it to be sure.

  “Are you hard of hearing?” snapped Damon when I didn’t move. “He said get up.”

  Without breaking eye contact, I slowly stood up from the corner I’d been perched in and straightened my back. My feet were at shoulder width and my fists were balled at my sides, but I didn’t move another inch. I just stood there without saying a word, staring at the two of them.

  “You best not try anything,” warned Maz. There was a nervous pitch to his voice, like he was scared of what I might do—of what I was capable of doing to him, even in this semi-useless state of being.