Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

EVEREST

Until today, I'd felt nothing but pity for Sam. I'd known she was a victim in all this, entirely unsuspecting of her bloodline and then thrown into the fiery pits of Mother's realm, literally, only to be handed over to Sweyn as a prop. A tool. Had Francelina not shown up before Sam, I would have gotten the required consummation over with. Hell, I'd been numb in that department for centuries. Francelina had changed that. I couldn't bring myself to take another when she was there.

But Francelina did not remember me.

Soon she would again. This was my window to do what I needed to, what I had to do, with a sliver of my self-respect still intact. Mother swore it would give both Sam and I more power . . . power I suspected I'd need to defeat her. So far, Mother had no reason to lie to me. For whatever twisted reason, this was the way it worked.

This anger . . . this fuming rage I felt inside . . . was my life raft in the sea storm of a task that made me sick to my stomach. I was going to capitalize on it. I would shut my mind and heart off and play a role.

All is fair in love and war. That was the saying after all.

Before my body even fully took form in Sam's room, I smelled fresh blood. I emerged from my shadows to find Sam standing in the center of her room with a serrated dagger slicing into her forearm. Thick red blood dripped down her white silk gown like a river.

Her gold and red eyes narrowed on me.

"What in God's name are you doing?" I growled through clenched teeth.

"Oh good, you can feel that." She lowered her dagger with her blood dripping onto her white carpet. "I was starting to call bullshit on the sire bond."

Rage flushed through my body. "You did not harm yourself to call me here."

"I had to get your attention somehow! Apparently pain works better than?—"

"Better than—" I gasped as realization hit far too late. "Tell me you did not summon fallen angels just?—"

"You don't speak to me!" she bellowed, her voice louder than I'd ever heard it. "You act like I'm the love of your life in court and then nothing?—"

"So you unleash three fallen angels onto a world full of innocent people to be slaughtered just to get my attention like some schoolgirl crush? We're in the middle of war, Sam. I'm sorry I'm not showering you with affection and love?—"

" I don't give a flying fuck if you have feelings for me! " she screeched, blood rushing to her face and turning her cheeks pink. "I grew up human. I'm not in a rush to marry my uncle for fuck's sake."

"THEN WHY?"

"Because I seem to have been bred for the sole purpose of making the great and powerful Lord Everest stronger. The only task grandmother seeks from me is to bed you and unlock some sinful new magic that I'm sure she'll use to destroy the world and everything beautiful, but I have to do it?—"

"WHY?" I stormed up to her, forcing her to stumble back away from me. Intentionally. I wanted to push her buttons, to force a reaction, to force her anger. The only way I was going to be able to do what I needed to was in a fit of rage . . . from both of us. So, I needed to provoke her. "TELL ME WHY?—"

" To get her out of my head! Because you haven't taught me shit. You abandoned me. You never taught me how to block her from my mind. Every hour I haven't fulfilled my birth's purpose she torments me." She lunged forward and shoved me in the chest with both of her hands with every sentence. " No one warned me I was to be turned into a bloodsucker after you stole me from the safe house and killed all those innocent witches. My friends . And then you handed me over like a trophy and sent me to her realm to be tortured and now I'm supposed to give you my body with no proof or assurance it'll benefit me at all, but oh, at least she'll leave me alone?—"

I grabbed her arm, spun her around and shoved her against the wall. I fisted her hair and dragged her head back so my mouth pressed to her ear. "She will never leave you alone."

This is it, Everest. Your chance. Do it. Just put you both out of your misery and get it over with.

But I couldn't. My grip on her hair loosened and the silky blonde strands slipped through my fingers. I couldn't move. Every muscle in my body yearned to flee, to turn and run. My heart screamed and pounded against my chest. Just that sliver of coldness in my mind that only a thousand years of torture could produce kept me in place. It was like my body was at war with itself in absolute desperation. I had to do this. I had to get more power and magic if we wanted to win this war against my mother. Haven Proctor was the one fated and tasked to kill her, but I wasn't stupid enough to think her own son wasn't going to have to be right beside him. They were going to need me and need me at my strongest.

Yet all I saw was Francelina's face in my mind.

Fate was a twisted, cruel little fuck.

If only Sam had arrived before Francelina, I would have been able to push through as I did all these centuries with Sweyn—a product of survival. It was almost like Heaven was testing me, except I wasn't sure what the right answer was. Did they expect me to fulfill my task with Sam for the greater good of the world . . . or did they want me to honor my heart and not touch her?

Then Sam let out a broken sob and I knew my answer.

There was no way I was touching her.

I sighed and stumbled over to the bench at the foot of her bed and sat down, then buried my face in my hands. "I . . . I can't, Sam. I'm sorry."

"You're in love with someone else, aren't you?" She sniffled. "That's why you won't."

"I've been working on a loophole so that we can still attain the additional power without having to do something so incestuous?—"

"That doesn't answer my question."

I didn't look up at her, didn't need her to see her answer in my eyes. "Where my heart lies is not your concern."

"Last I checked, I don't need your heart in order to do this?—"

"But I do," I interrupted her softly. "At least . . . I do now."

"So, I'm just screwed. Fantastic." She sniffled and her breath caught in her throat. When I looked up, she was wiping tears off her cheeks. "She'll just torment me endlessly until she breaks me. That can't possibly take too long with her in my head nonstop?—"

"Wait." I frowned as the meaning of her words finally registered. "You can't block her out?"

" NO! " she cried and threw her hands up.

I opened my mouth, then shut it. In the back of my mind, I registered that I had dropped the ball on teaching her how to block Mother out of her mind. I just hadn't had to do that since I was younger than Sam currently was. A plan began to take form in my mind, nothing concrete, just images, but I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

"We might be able to use that."

She flinched. "What?"

"I thought you had blocked her, but if you haven't . . ." I jumped to my feet and rubbed my hands together. "Yes, that might work to our advantage."

"I am not following." She scratched her head. "Now you do want to do it?"

"No, neither of us wants to do that?—"

"Why does it have to be that at all?" She wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged herself. "Why does it have to be sex?—"

I held my hand up to stop the questions she was about to ask. "Take a deep breath for me, Sam," I whispered and pushed my magic into my words.

She scowled but did as I asked like she couldn't stop herself from obeying. She couldn't, I'd used a strong dose of mind control that I normally loathed using. But desperate times required desperate measures. As she exhaled that breath, I threw my black smoke magic at her face. It flew like a whip to coil around her head. Her eyes widened.

"It won't hurt you," I said quickly. "It's for protection. From her. "

"Oh." Her eyes inspected the smoke halo around her. "Okay?"

"It doesn't have to be intimate, not per se." The plan was growing clearer in my mind now. It was the riskiest angle to play, but it was also the only one. "It's more about committing sins and evilness to invoke the power of Lilith so that she will unlock the rest of our magic."

"Invoke the power of Lilith. Like the Devil. All right. Okay. Well, that's something then." She wrung her hands together. "Your ancient ass surely has to have some brilliant idea on how to do that . . . right?"

My stomach tightened into knots. "I do. But it's very dangerous and requires one hell of a show."

"A show?" She scoffed. "We've been putting on a show since I got here. What's a little more?"

I took a step closer to her to make sure the magical barrier around her thoughts was firmly in place before I spoke my idea out loud. Once I was confident Mother would never have access to this, I spoke slowly and softly, "You need to think carefully and realistically here. Don't tell me you can do this if you don't know with one-hundred-percent certainty that you can do it. Because if you can't deliver the show we need, we will be worse than dead."

Her eyes widened. "What's the show?"

I smirked. "We're going to fake it. We're going to put on a show for her where we are pretending to do the task as she requested of us."

"We pretend to—" She licked her lips and nodded. "Like . . . like . . . like?—"

"Yes, like we're actually consummating the way she intended. We'll be fully clothed, so it means your performance will need to be Oscar-worthy."

She grinned, and for the first time since meeting Sam, I saw the glimpse of my mother in her. "I'll give you Best Picture and Best Actress, then top if off with a Tony-Award-worthy performance."

"Are you sure you can do this?"

"I'm not a virgin, Everest." She crossed her arms over her chest. "And this wouldn't be my first time faking it. I can do this. I just need more magic so I can get out of here. I'm desperate and I have nothing to lose?—"

"If Mother realizes we're faking it . . . well . . . I do believe you saw her realm firsthand." I arched one eyebrow. "Death would never find us there."

She shuddered and her face turned a little green.

I nodded. "Death is what we have to lose."

She closed her eyes.

"Sam?"

Her eyes met mine. "I will kill myself before she has a chance."

"No, you won't. She's too fast for that," I whispered. Then I sighed. "I tell you this not to frighten you but to make sure you understand what lies in our future if she catches us."

"I understand."

"Do you?" I cocked my head to the side and watched her. "The only way this works is if you can fake it in your thoughts as well."

Her eyes widened. "In my thoughts?"

"When she arrives, she will enter your mind, and if you can show her what she needs to see in your mind . . . then the physical show will suffice. That, and only that, is the reason this plan is plausible."

She was quiet a moment, and I let her have the silence to think. Then she looked up at me with her chin held high and her back straightened. "We're in this together, right? If she punishes you, she punishes me."

I nodded.

"And you've been putting on this level of show for centuries?"

"Yes."

She pushed her shoulders back. "Then let's do it. Right now. While I've got all these wild emotions rolling through me. This is it. Get in bed."

"Not in here." I smirked and pointed to the ceiling. "We're going to her tower room?—"

She snapped her fingers excitedly. "And I'll sit on your lap on the bench, right?"

I nodded.

"I have an idea." She held one finger up, then sprinted for her closet. In less than thirty seconds, she returned wearing a white chiffon gown with a cinched waist, a plunging neckline that held her chest pinned up high, and a loose-fitting skirt that swirled around her feet as she walked. She stopped in front of me and nodded. "Game time."

I held my hand out and waited for her to take it. When she did, I lowered my voice. "The moment we leave this room, you must be in character. Start the show and do not finish it until she gives us our magic. Understand?"

"Yes." She gripped my shirt with her other hand and pulled her body against mine. "If she can play her games, then I can too. I know what awaits us if we fail. I have no interest in risking that. I'm ready."

I hadn't seen this side of her before—this strong, empowered side . . . the driven and fierce side. Perhaps the other half of her bloodline wasn't in vain. Then again, perhaps Mother's blood wasn't too diluted either. With a smirk, I released my magical halo, looked into her eyes— then willed us into the shadows.

Darkness swallowed us.

The moment we emerged into Mother's tower room, Sam dragged me across the black marble floor, then spun us around and shoved me backwards. I went sliding, granted mostly because she'd shocked me, but as my back hit the raw onyx wall, I saw that menacing sparkle in her eyes. She let out a chuckle so evil only my mother could replicate it. I shook my head and beckoned her with both hands. She lunged across the room, then leapt onto my lap, straddling my hips. Her hands gripped the lapels of my blazer as her fangs elongated with excitement.

Oh, she's good. That made me smirk.

But I couldn't do this with her looking at me, so I gripped her arms and lifted her up off my lap and then spun her around. She gasped. Her hair whipped me in the face. A sinister giggle filled the room. She squeezed my thighs and arched her back into me.

Oh, she's very good. We might actually have a chance at this.

My stomach turned but I reminded myself this was acting. This was the least of all evils for the situation. I gripped her hip, pulling her white dress up on one side. " What are you waiting for? " I growled in her ear.

She let out a sexy little laugh, arching into me further while reaching her hands behind her back as if she were unzipping my pants. She wasn't, but damn . . . from the angle I had I almost believed it. Then she sat up straight, yanked her dress all the way up to pool around her hips, and then with quick fingers, she slid a pair of red lace underwear down to her knees.

Well, I'll be damned. She even brought a prop.

Before I could say or do anything else, she began her performance. Most men would have unraveled in my place with a woman as beautiful as Sam gyrating in their lap. But I barely noticed it. I focused on the shadows in the room around us. While she groaned, moaned, and cursed my name in her breathy voice, I scanned the dark corners of Sam's mind and waited for Mother to creep in.

The second I sensed her presence, I pulled out of Sam's mind and dragged her mouth to mine at the same exact time as I flicked my wrist to summon Mother to join us. Sam didn't gasp or startle. She didn't pull back. I hadn't warned her I was going to kiss her, yet she rolled with it like a pro. With a single flick of my tongue against her fang, she threw her head back and sang like Celine Dion.

And then Mother's applause echoed around the tower.

Sam gasped and sat up right, her skin flushed bright-pink. " Mistress, " she whispered reverently as she dove for the red lace underwear around her knees.

I lifted her onto her feet in front of me and pretended to adjust my clothing as Sam fixed hers. Our performance was ninety-percent finished. When I stepped around Sam, I found Mother's red eyes blazing like fresh lava. " Mother. "

She grinned, still applauding. "Offspring."

I had to give it to Sam, she'd nailed that performance. It was actually somewhat alarming how well she could fake that, but that was a question for another day. "I thought perhaps you might enjoy that."

"You never disappoint." She stepped up and got into Sam's face, then pressed her finger under Sam's chin. "But you. "

Sam managed not to flinch. She was impressing me more and more. Even her skin was flushed. "Yes, mistress?"

"I feared the human in your blood had destroyed you. Happy to see you're my granddaughter after all."

Sam bowed her head slightly with a sinister smirk on her face. "Happy to have cleared that up for you?—"

Don't call her grandmother. It's a test.

"—my lady."

Good girl.

Lilith beamed and pressed her palm flat on Sam's chest. A neon-red rune appeared on the back of her hand. It shimmered and glowed for a moment, and when Mother pulled her hand back, that same rune was on Sam's chest. Mother's darkness seeped from within the rune, spreading across Sam's body like little rivers.

Sam closed her eyes and smiled.

Mother turned to me and her eyes flashed. She arched one eyebrow.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for absolutely anything. I wouldn't know for sure she'd bought our little charade until she gave me the extra magic and then left.

"I think you stalled on this task just to ruffle my feathers, offspring . . . To make a point." She grinned a grin that made my stomach turn. "I have never doubted your blood."

I rocked back on my heels and slid my hands into my pockets. "Of course not. You know better."

She giggled and it sounded like glass shattering. And then she was right in front of me. Time seemed to slow down. This moment was the beginning of the end for me. Either she called my bluff or she fell for my lie. Sam would never have been fast enough to escape her, but I had a chance. Either way, this moment marked the change of tides.

Her palm pressed to my chest. The red glow of her demonic rune shined in my peripheral vision. It was brighter and bolder than it had been for Sam. My vision flashed red. My magic pulsed and buzzed with electricity, then rushed to the surface like I was about to set it all loose like a tsunami.

"Time to set you free now, offspring," she purred.

"Thank you, Mother."

Darkness coiled around me, but I was not afraid, for we were old friends.