Chapter 7

Seven

Calista

I wake with a gasp, covered in sweat. Draxos and Adrian’s body heat runs much higher than a human’s, making me feel like I’m suffocating.

Draxos groans behind me, and his arm tightens around us. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so hot,” I pant.

Draxos reaches behind him, flips a switch, and a large fan starts rotating above us. When the cool air blows over my overheated skin, I sigh. “Is that better, my Queen?”

“Much.” I settle against the pillows and look at Adrian’s sleeping face. I trace my finger across his brows, down his nose, over his high cheekbone, and then his pouty lips. “He’s so pretty.”

Draxos chuckles behind me. “He is. How do you feel?”

I look at him over my shoulder and smile. “I promise that I’m okay, Draxos. I have no regrets.”

“We’ll worship you,” Draxos says softly.

“Hell yeah we will,” Adrian answers groggily, his lips kicking up in a crooked smile. “I like worshiping you. You taste so good.”

“Don’t do that,” I laugh. “We’ll never get out of this bed, and we have stuff to do.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Draxos says. “We can find another way.”

“I want to do this. It’s the quickest way to get you guys home. You’ve waited long enough.”

“I don’t trust your father,” Adrian adds.

“I don’t think he was trying to hurt me. He wanted to protect me in his own weird way.” I sit up between them, more determined to get this over with. “I need to shower and get some clothes from my apartment.”

“Tell me what you need, and I’ll go get it.” Draxos slides to the end of the bed and stretches his arms over his head. Adrian and I stare at the muscles shift in his back and then burst out laughing when we catch each other practically drooling. Draxos turns around with his brow raised. “What’s so funny?”

We let our eyes travel down his chest, abs, cock, and thighs. “You should always walk around naked,” I say. “It’s a crime to cover that up.”

Adrian nods like crazy. “I agree. We should all just stay nude.” Adrian rolls over on top of me, making me squeal a laugh. “Then I could see these gorgeous tits all the time.” He kisses each one and makes a path with his lips down my stomach. “And this pussy.” Before his mouth can make contact, he disappears completely in a rush of shadows. I search the room for him and find him pouting in a chair against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “You don’t play fair.”

“She needs a bath. You can do that while I go get her something to wear.” Adrian perks up at that, and I giggle. “Just a bath, my love.”

“Fine,” Adrian grouches, standing from the chair. He walks to the bed, holds his hand out for me, and pulls me to my feet. When he goes to walk back past Draxos, he smacks Adrian hard on the ass. Adrian moans but doesn’t stop walking.

I ramble off what I need before the door shuts behind me. Adrian leads me over to a massive bathtub and turns the water on. While we wait for the tub to fill, he wraps his arms around me and kisses me with so much passion that my stomach flips. I wrap my arms around his neck and meet him with each stroke of his tongue. Within minutes, our hands start roaming. I spread my legs wider when his hand slides toward my pussy. He brushes my clit with his fingers, and banging on the door has us jerking apart.

“Don’t forget that I can feel everything you two do now,” Draxos calls out. “Bath only.”

“What?” I gasp.

Adrian turns the water off and grabs my hand. “Through the mate bond. It connects us so we can feel each other’s emotions.” He helps me step into the tub, sits down, and pulls me down to lean against his chest.

“All of them?”

“Yeah. Fear, anger, desire. All of them.” Adrian grabs some body wash from the side of the tub and squirts some onto his hand. He rubs his hands together to lather it up, and he starts massaging it into my shoulders.

I settle against his chest as he takes his time cleaning the upper half of my body. I’ve never felt so cared for. Not since my mom disappeared. Before that, everything was normal. I had friends, my parents were deliriously in love, and they loved me unconditionally. The night she left, it all changed. I felt like an outsider in my own home, and now I know it’s because my father knew I was a witch. “Are you okay with this?” I ask suddenly. “With me joining you and Draxos.”

“I’m beyond happy about it, baby. Draxos and I always felt that something was missing. That something was you.” His hand slides between my legs to clean up the mess they made, and he keeps his touch tender. He urges me to my knees and turns me to face him. “When we got trapped here, us being together is the only thing that saved us.”

“Will you tell me about it?” I ask, brushing his hair toward his horns and away from his forehead.

“I didn’t usually come to the human world with him. He would come to wrangle a demon causing trouble, so I usually stayed home. But this time, he asked me to come with him, and I’ve never been more thankful for that.” Adrian pulls me to straddle his lap and lays his hands on my hips. “We were on a demon’s trail when we felt it. We could physically feel the divide between the worlds closing. It was so painful, and it didn’t take us long to realize that we couldn’t reach our human forms. When the divide closed, we were two demons standing on the street with a bunch of humans. Pandemonium broke out, and Draxos used his shadows so we could disappear.”

“How did you figure out it was my mom?”

“We already knew there were witches living in the human world. You aren’t required to stay in the Underworld. Draxos said he could feel who did it and followed the trail to your house. The spell took a lot out of your mom, and she was unconscious, but the book was still open to the spell. We grabbed her, found an abandoned house to stay in until we could figure it out, and that’s where we’ve been ever since.”

“I’m sorry she did that to you.”

Adrian pecks my lips and helps me to my feet. He quickly finishes washing me off, turns on the shower spray to rinse me off, turns it off, and grabs a towel from the rack. He wraps it around me and helps me from the tub. “I was at first because it kept us from our families. But I never would have met you if it didn’t happen.”

“But I’m part of the reason.”

Adrian shakes his head. “No. None of the blame lands on you. You were ten when it happened.”

“Do you think I can do this?”

“I have no doubt, baby, and we’ll be with you the entire time.”

I’m not nervous to face my dad. I’m nervous because I don’t want to fail them.

And I’d do anything for them now.

Knocking on my dad’s door, my heart flips in my chest when he opens it. It looks like he’s aged ten years since I left.

“Calista?”

“Hey, Dad. Can I come in?” He looks around behind me before stepping to the side and letting me in. I don’t miss the way he’s eyeing me warily, probably because he knows that his drugs have worn off.

“What are you doing here?”

“Am I not allowed to visit?”

“You made it very clear how you felt when you told me you were moving out.”

“That didn’t mean I was just going to disappear.”

Before I came here, I talked to Mom so I could get a good idea of what I was doing. She said now that my powers have manifested, I would feel the power of the book, and she’s right. My body is already trying to pull me in that direction. I know exactly where it is and already worked out how I’m getting away from Dad. “Do you need money?”

I try not to roll my eyes, but I know my annoyance shows. “No. I don’t. But I did leave some stuff in my room.”

Dad jerks a nod, but I see the sweat beading on his brow. He’s actually scared of me now. No matter how powerful Draxos and Adrian think I am, I’d never hurt my dad. It breaks my heart to know he actually thinks that. I excuse myself and head for the stairs. When I get to the top, I make sure Dad isn’t following me and head toward the attic steps. This place has always creeped me out, and now I know why. This is where my mom apparently hid all her witchy stuff. But now, climbing the stairs, I feel peace from whatever she has up here. It might also be because I can feel Draxos and Adrian. They weren’t lying when they said that we can feel every emotion. I feel worry from them, but also pride. Strength bleeds through, and I smile knowing Draxos is pushing it toward me.

I check one more time to make sure I’m alone and open the door to the attic. Taking a deep breath, I use what little bit of training Mom gave me before I left and call on my powers. I figured out quickly that the white light doesn’t have to be visible or uncontrollable. I follow it now to a crystal in the corner and reach for it.

“What are you doing?”

I gasp and whirl around to find Dad standing behind me, anger rolling off of him in waves. “I was?—”

“I knew something was off when you walked in.” Dad walks in, closing the door behind him. In all the years of his “delusions”, I’ve never been afraid of him. But looking into his brown eyes right now, I’m terrified. Anger comes through the bond, and I know I have seconds to diffuse this situation before Draxos storms this house. “You should have stayed here so I could protect you, but now it’s too late.”

“What’s too late?”

“It’s too late to save you.” Sadness fills Dad’s eyes, and I swallow. “You’ve become one of them.”

“You’re scaring me,” I say softly.

“I did everything that I could to keep you hidden from those monsters.”

“I found Mom,” I blurt out when he takes a step forward. I use that distraction to move toward the crystal. A few more steps and I can knock it over so Draxos and Adrian can come in. “She’s alive.”

“Where?” Instead of relief about Mom being safe, he looks livid. Dad rushes forward, and I kick backward as hard as I can, right at the crystal. It doesn’t fall like I thought it would so he slams into me so hard that my head bounces off the window seal. Black spots dance in my vision, and I struggle weakly against him.

“Calista!” Draxos’ voice booms through the door, and he starts banging on it. He can’t enter, so I reach out blindly for the crystal.

“Where. Is. She?” Dad’s hands come up to my throat, squeezing hard.

“Dad,” I wheeze. “Please stop.”

“You stupid girl.” Dad’s voice takes on a weird edge, something that I’ve never heard before. He’s no longer the scared man that I grew up with, he’s terrifying.

“Calista!” Draxos roars. “Use your powers. That’s not your Dad!”

I stare at the man who gave me life, my heart pounding in my chest. I’m seconds away from passing out, so I follow Draxos’ command. I bring my powers to the surface of my skin, letting it shock him enough to let me go. Coughing, I turn around, grab the crystal, and crush it between my fingers. The door bursts open, and Draxos rushes in, grabbing the man in front of me. Adrian runs to me, drops to his knees, and gathers me in his arms. “Baby, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I croak, rubbing my throat. “What is going on?”

“He’s a shapeshifter,” Draxos grits out, holding the man that looks like my father by his hair. The man grins and before my eyes changes into a demon. He looks like Draxos and Adrian, but his eyes are off. “This is what your mother was trying to stop. Some demons have the abilities to take the shape of whoever they touch.”

I sit up, grabbing Draxos’ arm. “Where’s my dad?”

“He’s close,” he soothes. “Let’s get what we came for and I’ll take you to him.”

“What about him?” Adrian nods to the demon hanging from Draxos’ fingers.

“He’s coming with us.” Draxos disappears and is back within minutes. “He’s locked in the house. We can’t risk him going back to his nest.”

Adrian helps me get to my feet and checks me over. He kisses my forehead when I hiss at him touching the back of my head. “You hit your head really hard. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I assure him, pulling his hand away to hold it. “The books are over here.” I lead him to a stack of books, and he takes them from me as soon as I pick them up. “I need to check on Dad.”

Draxos grabs my hand and leads me back downstairs. We find Dad in a spare room, laying too still. “He’s just sleeping,” Draxos says when he feels me start to panic. “Shapeshifters can’t keep the forms if someone is dead. Check on him. We’ll wait outside the door.” I go to argue until I realize that it might not be a good idea to wake him up with two huge demons standing in the room.

I rush over when the door shuts behind them and pat his cheek. “Dad. Wake up.” Dad groans so I pat a little harder. “Dad. You have to wake up.”

Dad’s eyes flutter open, and he scrambles away from me. “What are you doing here? Did you come to kill me?”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“I can feel them on you,” Dad whispers, swallowing hard. “I’ll never forget what their energy felt like. It was so dark…and evil.”

“They aren’t evil. Dad, there’s so much you don’t know, but you aren’t safe here. You have to come with me.”

“No. No, no, no.” Dad shakes his head wildly, moving further away. “You can’t be here.”

“I found Mom.”

“She’s tainted now. She let you fall into this life. You need to leave.”

“Dad—”

“Leave!”

With tears filling my eyes, I get to my feet. “I’m so sorry that it’s come to this. I love you, Dad.”

When he doesn’t answer me, I go to the door and open it. Draxos is already standing there with his arms wide open for me. I run into them, bury my head in his chest, and let all the emotions from the last three days spill out. I cry for everything that I’ve lost, everything that I missed out on, and for everything that I have to do next. Adrian presses against my back, sandwiching me between them. They don’t rush me, just whisper sweet words until I’m finished with my breakdown. When I’m all cried out, I pull back, and Draxos wipes the tears from my cheeks.

“Let’s do this,” I declare, and he smiles.

“That’s my girl.”

“It’s time for us to go home.”