Being turned into a brainless s.e.x induced corpse was not my preferred way to die...but it would be painless. When we reached the table, rough hands grabbed me from behind and swung me over it effortlessly as if I weighed no more than ten pounds.

A deep timbre s.h.i.+vered against my supple flesh as it whispered against my ear, "Last chance Mag's," his fingers still bit into my soft flesh, refusing to leave my skin. They sent heat soaking into my bones, pooling in my core as molten lava. f.u.c.king Fae.

"Screw you," I said trying to hide the fear I was feeling.

I sat with my back to him. My legs clumsily draped half over the other side of the small table. My back was flush against the hard rippling planes of his chest, his heat entering my skin as surely as if I was siphoning it from his pores.

"I intend to screw you and by the time I am done, you'll not only beg me for more, you'll tell me anything I want to know."

A s.h.i.+ver licked my flesh sending small rivulets of sweat pooling at the base of my neck. I wasn't sure how long the spell laced in my hairline would hold, or if it would work against a Dark Prince at all for that matter, but I needed it to.

I'd had t.i.tus our local tattoo artist who spelled his ink place them there when I was thirteen. He reinforced the spell every year like clockwork. Most Witches when they hit adulthood were covered in ink, spelled for protection or against memories.

I'd kept my memories and my internal scars. They were reminders of what I had lived through and how close I'd come to death over the years. The one on my neck was to make sure I had a fighting chance against the Fae, unlike my mother years ago.

"Lock her in," Ryder said stepping away from me.

His Demon stepped forward, pus.h.i.+ng me down gently, which was surprising since I was about to die. f.u.c.ked to death by a Fae...life just kept kicking my a.s.s. I held my breath as my arms were held above my head once more, but this time flat and then the metal chain was attached to a hook at the top of the bed, my feet were slipped into similar chains and locked in place.

I turned my face to Adam when I was secured for the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Fae Prince, tears ran down his cheeks. I felt for him, because if I started blabbing or gave a hint of who we were, I'd meet Chandra's fate at his hands.

"You f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Use me!" Adam roared fighting against the chains that held him in place. Anger rolled from him in violent waves, mixed with despair. "Mag's...Fight him dammit!"

I smiled sadly. He knew I had no chance against the Dark Prince. To the best of our knowledge, he was among the most powerful of the Fae. I didn't speak, I couldn't. Tears made my throat grow closed, pain poured through my heart as I imagined seeing myself from Adam's vantage. I swallowed past the tears and spoke clearly, proudly. "Close your eyes," I told Adam and watched as he shook his head with tears threatening to fall at my words.

Adam strained against the chains, normally so composed and confident, he was now reaching a breaking point with anger at what he knew was happening. His sharp features normally smooth and young, now strained with it.

"How cute," Ryder growled.

We ignored him, we both knew what was coming and I didn't want the closest thing I had to family watching this happen to me as I had once watched it happen to my own mother. I felt Ryder pull the magic around him, thick and devastating.

"Chance. Please, don't watch this." My words cut off as l.u.s.t tore through me so violently I almost exploded in pleasure. My body jerked tautly, my eyes seeking the one responsible for these seductive feelings and had created the fire inside of me.

Ryder's fingers of both his hands were touching my skin, sending a battering ram of need through my mind as his Fae powers pushed against my will. I wanted to beg him to stop, but if I did...he'd know how afraid I was and I couldn't allow that. He placed his face closer to mine, making sure I could see him.

My lips quivered as his eyes turned to molten lava, golden as a mint pressed bar in the National Reserve. His tongue snaked out to lick his lips before he lowered his head to mine. "Last chance to tell me."

I shook my head, my eyes lingering on his lips for a second too long before moving to look into his golden haze. He smelled divine, sandalwood mixed with Otherworld spices, illegal to humans for their aphrodisiac proprieties and he must have been pus.h.i.+ng it from his pores in succulent waves. Lips of the finest silk touched against my cheek, moving slowly over flesh until they lingered briefly over my own.

He took my breath away and fed it back to me slowly, just from his close proximity. His fingers moved, releasing the magical hold for mere seconds as he moved them down to inside of my thighs. My breathing grew labored as his fingers met my delicate flesh. Stroking and exploring. His eyes searched my face, watching every minuscule expression, every hiss I made from his touch.

His breath hinted of rum and against my better judgment I wondered if he would taste of it. I didn't have long to wait to figure it out as his mouth crushed against mine in a hard demanding kiss. His fingers released my leg where they had been making small swirling patterns and slid up and held my head back, one hand buried deep in my hair, the other along my jawbone demanding I open to his kiss.

The kiss lasted only a few minutes, but in that time heat had flooded to my core drenching my panties. My body shook from the need to release, just from his kiss. I moaned against his mouth, wanting, demanding more before my mind could grasp what I had done. A throaty purr vibrated through his chest as he pulled back releasing my mouth but not his touch.

"You're wet for me, already." He growled huskily.

His eyes were alight with his own need, filled with a million stars as if the solar system lived inside their fiery depths. My own eyes felt glazed, my body was a ma.s.s of need. My lips quivered for his, my chest lifted for his fingers, needing him to grace them with his heated touch. I bit my lip to keep from begging as I struggled from his powers.

I could feel the burning on my neck, from the brand, the tattoo trying to work and failing. It wasn't working. I would be killing t.i.tus when, or if I got out of this alive. It should have been working against his seductive powers.

I played out why I was here and who was depending on me. Adam would have to kill me if I gave in and he'd never recover from it. He'd end up as damaged as I was. I bit my lip harder, drawing blood to the surface. "More," I growled huskily much to his delight and my utter horror.

"Unchain my saucy little s.e.x pet Ristan, please," Ryder's own voice was filled with l.u.s.t. His eyes watching me feverishly, intensely. I watched him from beneath my lashes.

He was well-built. Muscles covered his torso as well as tattoo's. Smooth and bronzed, unscarred perfection. The tattoos or brands as we called them pulsated, proof he was pus.h.i.+ng his magic into my mind, consuming my will to become his own. It was working. My body wanted him more than I had ever wanted any man before.

I felt a tug first on my hands and then the clinking of chains falling haphazardly to the floor met my ears. Adam's shouts now sounded as if they were coming from far away, but still there. I only needed Ryder, I needed him to fill me and take away the throbbing need between my thighs.

The chains on my feet were also removed giving me free reign to sit up, but my body felt useless, as if my bones were gone and the muscle had been replaced with Jell-O. My mind fought to keep a hold of why I was here, but with Ryder so close, it was becoming impossible to remember even my own name.

Ryder released my face and moved to the end of the exam table, deftly lifting himself up and moving my legs around his hips as he did so. I groaned as he lifted my body, slowly, effortlessly. His hands placing my own over his shoulders, as his slid gently down my back. I ground myself against him and enjoyed the deep rumble that ripped from his chest. I was on fire and he was the cure.

The contact was too much, too fast. My mind went completely numb once more as his mouth found mine and devoured it hungrily. Sparks ignited inside of me, a storm built to dangerous levels in my core. I was so close to reaching the precipice he had me standing on. I wanted to go over-needed to.

I melted into his kiss ardently, needing more of him inside of me. I was on fire, burning from the inside out. My panties clung, soaked against my p.u.s.s.y, his hand on my back was p.i.s.sing me off...I needed his fingers buried deep inside of me to stop the pain eating away at my mind. I growled with need, but instead of giving me what I wanted he pulled back panting.

The look of surprise in his molten depths fed my inner vixen, he wanted me. I smiled with victory until something echoed inside of me, a warning I wanted to ignore but couldn't. Someone needed me, someone other than my master, it was important that I not give in to this s.e.xual beast...but why?

"I ache," I whined, bringing my hands around from where they had been holding him against my own flesh. They strayed with a mind of their own down my smooth belly, reaching lower to stop the pain, but his hands grabbed mine, pulling them away and bringing them back up to hold against his chest.

"Tell me what I want to know and I'll make it better for you," His voice was rough and guttural as if he was in as much pain as I was. I wanted to stop his pain, but he wouldn't stop talking. "Who do you work for?"

I blinked, my mind going blank...I was supposed to remember something and yet I wanted his c.o.c.k more than anything else in the entire world. I opened my mouth and closed it a few times like a fish gasping for breath outside of its tank.

"What's your name?" He asked when I didn't reply.

"Who the f.u.c.k cares? I hurt," I pulled my hand away from his only to grab it back and push it towards my wetness, "Down here."

He growled hungrily, but yanked his hand away. His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to figure something out. That nagging feeling inside my mind comes back with a vengeance. Itching against my scalp and then going deeper.

My lip quivered from the pain inside my head at the force of the pull to listen to the white noise blaring inside my mind. I tilted my head as I focused my gaze on his full mouth. I leaned closer needing to taste them again and he lets me.

He groaned as I caressed his lips with my tongue, nipping at his lip between my teeth teasingly before pus.h.i.+ng my tongue inside his mouth seductively. His hands lifted from where he had allowed them to drop and grabbed the back of my head, bending my neck back to allow him more access. I moaned against him, allowing him to open my jaw until it's was as far as it would go for his hungry mouth. His tongue stroking mine, relentlessly.

And then it hit me...coming back with the force of a truck hitting a wall at sixty miles an hour. Enemy. Fae. Adam. Torture.

Three.

I came alive like a lightning bolt. I pushed away from him, falling to the floor with a bone-jarring thud that woke me up better than the cold bucket of water I had tossed in my face earlier did. I was on my feet and backing away from the two deadly creatures who stood shocked that I'd been able to move at all.

I was pretty sure that it was the shock that kept them from attacking. I pulled the anger that had been hiding inside of me, along with Adam's into my mind and pushed it out of my body in a solid wave clearing the room of the Demons oily magic, until mine was the only magic inside the room.

I allowed the magic to run through me riotously and seductively. My mouth opened and whispered a binding spell. Hate and fear made for hasty decisions. I needed something that could get me and Adam out of this alive. The Dark Prince wouldn't know what hit him.

In the seconds that it took for them to understand what I was doing, the door behind them was thrown open and Alden suddenly was there in front of the Dark Prince. I was beyond hearing. Everything inside the room was silent inside my head. I'd evaporated it with the blood from my lips where I had bitten down into them for the blood needed for the spell.

I said the words sealing us together, I and the Dark Prince. If he killed me, he'd follow my fate. Everything was moving in slow motion. The horrified look on the Warlock's face as he stood in front of the Prince as if to guard him from what was coming gave me pause.

I could hear my own heartbeat. It was the only sound inside my head. I inhaled readying the words to take us both out, but something grabbed me from behind and took me to the floor before I could say them.

Adam was shouting against my ear but he sounded far away, distorted. He'd been in chains only moments ago, how the h.e.l.l had he gotten loose and why had he stopped me? He had taken me to the floor and before I could understand it was him, I'd attacked. Sound came back with deafening roar of violent voices all cursing. Alden was screaming at me to cease, Adam was cursing, now as confused as I was but he'd connected something I hadn't.

Or he better have since he'd knocked me flat on my a.s.s...and into a pile of ash that had once been Chandra. I watched as Alden said something to the Fae and then the Demon only for all three to turn as one and look at me. I fought to get my breathing under control. The feel of his searing kiss was still lingering upon my lips.

I turned narrowed eyes back at the three men wondering what the f.u.c.k was going on. Alden was from the Guild-My Guild, he was the leader of the Eastern Section of Was.h.i.+ngton State. He'd basically been a father figure to the orphans that came to us....which had included me up until a few years ago when Adam, Larissa and I had moved out of the Guild complex into apartments of our own in the same building.

Alden stood with his gentle blue eyes narrowed on me, his thick brown hair was streaked with grey and instead of it making him look older as it should have; it just made him look intelligent. He wore the Guild leaders crimson robe over black slacks. He didn't look a day over thirty five, but I knew different.

I still didn't trust my voice not to quiver from the effect the Fae had upon me. My insides still quivered with need for him and only him. It burned me, my anger rising by the second even though I'd sent it away. It was one of the few ways an immortal could be killed outright. Bind his soul to a weak human and drag him to h.e.l.l with you.

Souls were tricky that way. You couldn't live without one-you wouldn't want to anyways.

"Synthia, listen to me closely," Alden said sternly as if talking to a wayward child, "You need to release him this instant, he's the f.u.c.king Dark Prince for f.u.c.ks sake girl, what the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?"

I digested his words....what was wrong with me? "Alden..." I growled, knowing what he was going to say next without needing the words.

He said them anyways, "This was an interview...He wouldn't have hurt you."

I laughed but it was cold, more p.i.s.sed than happy. "A f.u.c.king interview?"

"They asked for the best, but they wanted to see you in action and to see your skills without you knowing it was an interview."

Bile rose to the back of my throat as I stood, pus.h.i.+ng myself off the ground still only garbed in my unmentionables. "A f.u.c.king interview! Chandra's f.u.c.king dead. Because I killed her Alden! He tried to turn me, he f.u.c.king kissed me!"

"No harm was done Synthia."

I blinked at Alden, hadn't he heard me? "Chandra. Is. Dead." I replied slowly, enunciating every word. Making sure he couldn't miss the anger I was feeling, or what I was telling him.

"Yes, she is. Shame, but she was being tested as well. Synthia she was new to our Guild. You know that better than anyone, the Guild the rules must be kept. You were under the Dark Prince's powers, yet you refused to give up the information...she sang like a bird at the first chance she got to save her own skin. You did as you were taught child, you did well."

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry. I knew what I had to do and it was neither of those things. I had to bury my dead. Chandra deserved to be given the Rites. She deserved to go into the Fade, to be reborn.

I turned and erected an invisible wall with what strength I had left, much to the horror of those around me who had no idea what I intended to do with the life of the Dark Prince still attached to my own soul.

It wasn't until I turned and smiled sadly at Adam, that they knew what I was going to do and started to freak out. Alden rushed to the invisible barrier, while Ryder and his Demon stood still as if afraid to move. I knew better, I was willing to bet there wasn't much Ryder was afraid of...not even dying.

"You can't send her to the Fade, she turned on us!" Alden screamed, outraged that I would try to send her even though she had betrayed us.

Try was the key word. I would take her death unto me. If I could manage to keep my mind from thinking it was happening in reality. I'd done it only once before, not many had the b.a.l.l.s to even attempt it since the mind was a dangerous thing to play around in.

I silently looked around the room finding my target. A radio sat in the corner, turned off. I sent my magic flowing through the room to it, finding Creed's My Own Prison within its database and turned it up. I bent down, kneeling upon the cement floor in front of the ashes.

Adam tried to turn it off, but as the words flowed he stopped. I could feel the weight of the stares in the room burning into my flesh, heavy and unrelenting. I pulled a knife from the Demons boot without having to leave the sanctuary of the circle, magic swift and silent pulling it inside and sealing the hole before anyone knew what had happened.

I brought up the cold, wicked looking blade and cut my palms, slicing an X across both hands, the sting burned as flesh opened up in thin red lines to release blood needed to complete her Rites. I painted the sign of life and death on my torso. The sign of fear and courage on my cheeks and then whispered the chant to bring life to the ashes.

A small wind flowed through the room as I pulled myself up to meet Chandra's soul as she came alive briefly, her soul will need host...I will become it until I can release it. The soul gets lost without a host, it's why we take them in and release them with magic.

Her hazel eyes opened as she stepped from the ashes, she had no voice but it didn't keep her from trying to use it. Telling the dead, they're actually dead is not always a bright idea. They tend to think they can be reanimated. Only Necromancer's can do it and it doesn't always end well for the soul.

She glared and it might have been comical except I'm the one who killed her, so technically...I'd hate me too. She smiled, it was cold, her brown curls rustled soundlessly as she laughed and it too was silent. She noted Adam and Alden outside the sanctuary I cast to protect us from being disturbed. She tilted her head before accepting my offer to carry her. Pain erupted as she entered through the small cuts. Her soul was pulsing as it entered my own. I felt her inside of me, her animated soul gone as she entered my body. And then it came.

I felt my lungs start to fill with fluid, blood. I was taking her death echo into my soul. My brain makes me experience it for myself. As if it was really happening to me. This is where it would get tricky, if my brain at any time thinks it is actually happening...I would die.

Adam pounded against the invisible barrier, he's yelling to remember. Remember it isn't happening and it wasn't, not really. G.o.d did it hurt, it wasn't supposed to hurt. It was supposed to be painless. She suffered, because I'd lost focus.

I felt her rage as she made the connections and then the bitterness of denial as she figured out it's me who killed her. I could barely feel my own body at this point. I could feel the tears flowing from my eyes from the pain, as my soul made room for her inside of it.

My hands flew to my throat as oxygen was ripped and starved from my esophagus and then I felt my lungs giving out. Chaos broke loose outside of the s.h.i.+eld, as the Dark Prince coughed and grabbed at his own throat.

Our eyes met and held. If I died...he died with me. He could feel my distress because I'd linked him to my lifeline-my soul. I'll undo it when I'm done gathering her soul and consuming my sin. He's enraged now, he understands that at this moment he's as mortal as I am...and if I lose this battle, he will join me in death.

I coughed and hit the floor at the same moment he did. Our eyes still locked on one another, his in anger, mine in awe. Even choking, this a.s.shole is hot-seriously, someone needs to break his nose and make him a little less pretty.

My mind cried out in warning, Adam and Alden are both chanting...trying to take down the barrier. The Demon was using his dark powers...did they think I hadn't considered all this before I erected it? It's fool proof. I'm that good, seriously. Sometimes I scared myself with just how bada.s.s I am.

Ryder spat blood the same moment I did and then it stopped. He stood up as I did. I smiled coldly, he'd felt her pain. He'd felt mine, he had touched my f.u.c.king soul. He knows now that I am darker inside, that I have secrets. I hate it.

I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand and moved my hand, flicking my wrist to remove the barrier. "Come Fae, let's get this over with." I wanted him out of me; his soul was slithering seductively against my own.

Four.

Clothed in my shorts and tank top once more I grabbed his hands and met him face-to-face. His hands, surprisingly warm, gave me a sliver of remembrance of how his seductive touch felt on my skin. I placed them palm up, with my much smaller hands resting lightly on top and enjoyed the anger flowing through him. Until he spoke.

"If you ever connect us again...I will kill you Witch," his voice was low, raspy.

I raised my eyes to meet his head on, "You ever try to Fae-f.u.c.k me again...I'll kill you Fairy."

"I'll show you a f.u.c.king Fairy...if I remember right, you wanted it."

I raised a blonde brow, which was probably red at the moment since I was still covered in blood. "You used the haze, which is basically rape."