Page 22 of Siren Sins
Derek increased his pace. I’d never seen the Incubus King go anywhere in a hurry. “Luke must be nearly done with his part.” He glanced back at me. “If you care for Jet or Luke, you’ll stay right on my heels, got it?”
I swallowed and nodded. I’d play along, for now.
Just when I thought I was going to cook alive, the light took on an angry red hue. The tunnels grew tighter and I bit back whimpers from the building claustrophobia. I didn’t like this place one bit. It felt wrong on so many levels.
“There,” Derek said with an excited tinge to his voice.
I skipped around him only to find the source of his enthusiasm was Luke kneeling and pressing his palms against a translucent shard sticking from the ground. Smoke drifted from where his skin met the crystal as he chanted.
When I got close enough to touch him, I hovered over his shoulder, but instinct made me curl my fingers. He was oblivious to us and the jagged crystal he hovered over smelled of blood and death.
Derek unfurled the unconscious Jet from his shoulder. At the same time he produced a dagger and sliced a line down Jet’s wrist.
“What are you doing?” I shrieked.
Luke’s chants interrupted and his lips moved as he mumbled. Derek frowned at me. “Don’t distract him if you know what’s good for you.” He held Jet’s arm over the stone and let the blood run over its sharp edges. Instead of flowing onto the floor, the crystal sucked up every last drop.
I sucked in a breath when I realized what I was looking at.
This was the birth of a new Blood Stone.
“You’re killing him!” I shrieked and launched for the Incubus King who was bleeding my newest lover over a magical stone. This was one of my four. I couldn’t let anything happen to him.
Derek put up a hand to stop me, expecting his powers over lust and sex to infect me, but I was immune. I slammed into him and ripped Jet from his grasp.
Derek blinked at me before his eyes crinkled with amusement. “Don’t get all out of sorts. I only needed the blood of the true Dragon King to complete the ritual.”
Jet groaned in my grasp as I dragged him into my lap. I didn’t have time to register what Derek had said that Jet was the “true” king.
I whirled to face Luke. His eyes had gone white and he still chanted over the jagged lump of crystal that now thrummed with a heartbeat of its own. My hairs stood on end as an unseen tension built.
A thousand voices filled the chambers and I whirled to find its source. My hair flung in my face as I panted with fresh panic.
“That’s our cue,” Derek said, and stood. “Time to get out of here.”
“Like hell I’m going to let you leave!” I shrieked. He’d unleashed whatever hell was about to break loose in this place. I wasn’t going to allow him to abandon his victims.
He shrugged. “You’re welcome to try and stop me, little succubus, but I believe you have other souls to worry about.” His gaze fell to Luke, then to Jet in my arms. “Your lovers are adding up, my dear, and it looks like they’ll be first on the menu.” He grinned. “I’ll be back to collect our prize after it’s fed from their death.”
I gaped at him. “You’d leave me, too? I thought you said that you needed me alive.”
He huffed a laugh. “Oh, little succubus. You’re their mother. They’d never feed on you. You’re quite safe, and if you wish to stay here to witness the consequences of your love, then so be it. It’ll be good for you to realize that your place is with me once this is all over.”
With that, Derek disappeared into the fog of red as the voices grew louder.
Panic threatened to make my vision go black, but I forced myself to focus. I leaned Jet’s head back so that he could breathe easier. “Jet,” I whispered as I stroked his cheek, “can you hear me?”
All I got was a groan in reply.
“Okay, then no rescue from the scorned Dragon King who’d had his throne taken. How about you, Luke?” I asked, carefully resting Jet onto the scorching ground.
Luke’s eyes slowly closed as he swayed over the pulsing gem. The voices were growing louder, their shrieks and cries echoing down the tunnels. It felt like they were coming from all directions, and this stone was what was drawing them.
I had to silence it somehow. I wrapped my fingers around the jagged edges, wincing when it pierced my skin. “Thing is sharp as hell,” I cursed.
Tingling swept through my body as the stone tasted my blood.
“I wouldn’t recommend doing that,” said Lilith. I snarled to find her standing over us, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She leaned into one hip like a bratty teenager. “Your blood is too powerful. My brothers and sisters are already going mad with the violence and rage that comes from the Shanghai dragons we’ve already sacrificed.” She tilted her head. “Your lifetime of guilt and seduction is only going to make them more dangerous and difficult to control.”
