Dark Beauty Read online

  “I don’t really give a damn about rogue dark users,” I say, practically laughing. “Alyssa can shred a dark user. So can Kane. Hell, for that matter, Drackus can be called in. He’s still the most powerful warlock around. But I—”

  “Gage is actually probably stronger than Drackus, but he’s all secretive about his shit,” Dice interrupts, lying his ass off just to be annoying.

  Gage glares at him, looking as though he could rip him in half.

  His messy black hair and all those tattoos and piercings really work well for him, but he’s nothing more than a pretty distraction in my opinion.

  “It’s true,” Dice says before I can speak. “Ask Alyssa who puts Drackus in time-out when he loses his shit.”

  Considering I usually put Drackus in “time-out” these days, I don’t bother responding. Not everyone knows what I can do, and they don’t need to know. I prefer to be the overlooked visionary with absent visions.

  Rolling my eyes and ignoring Gage’s murderous stare down with the incubus, I shrug. “Regardless of who has bigger balls in the warlock realm, the Somage has more important things to worry about than rogue dark users. Sorry, boys. You’re on your own.”

  Gage curses under his breath before running a hand through his hair. Apparently he manages to unstick his tongue from his mouth, because he finally finds his voice again.

  “You’re too young to be leading the Somage.”

  My smile is one of surprised amusement, and I turn more to face him, ignoring the fact that my body is responding to him in all the wrong ways.

  “And you’re too old to think you have the right to state such a thing.”

  His lips tighten, and he uses those blue eyes as a weapon to relay how pissed he is.

  I think he’s still ticked off that he finds me alluring. I know I’m pissed that I keep wondering what it would be like to kiss him with those lip rings. Damn sexy dark user.

  “If this many are going rogue, then they’re assembling. We need to look into it, and it falls under Somage jurisdiction.”

  My moment of weakness is snapped as an angry glaze crawls over me. I take a step toward him, proving he doesn’t scare me one little bit.

  “You left the Somage, Gage. You really don’t have any say in what we do or don’t pursue anymore. As I said, we have more important things to worry about. We’re going after the slave rings—been tracking down leads for two years. People are still stuck in captivity all across the planes. Alyssa can make all the laws she wants to, but there are underground tyrants that rule from the shadows. We’re busy saving the innocents out there.”

  For a moment, Gage’s eyes soften, but I refuse to see the pity. My past isn’t exactly a secret, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the looks people give me when they remember the details.

  My stint in the slave ring was very small compared to what others have endured. I spent more time in the Light Council’s prison than anywhere else. But I was passed along some dark corners before I got there.

  “We’ve got the coordinates now,” James calls from behind me.

  But Gage draws my attention once more before I can respond.

  “Do you use your visions to track them down?” Gage asks, seeming genuinely interested.

  I laugh humorlessly while shaking my head. “Boy, when you cut someone out of your life, you manage to cut out all things tied to them, huh?”

  He tilts his head, and I turn around to follow the others, not bothering to elaborate for the clueless dark user.

  I have a job to do, and Gage isn’t going to stand in my way. Rogue dark users; as if I’m worried about that. “Go stick your head back in the sand,” I say with my back turned. “Some of us have real things to deal with right now.”

  ***

  GAGE

  “You fucking lied to me and let me make an ass out of myself when I was looking for K.”

  Dice laughs hard, pounding his chest when he starts to choke and strangle on his roaring release. He is still mocking me for my idiotic moment with Kimber. Really wasn’t expecting her to look like that. And I hate the fact that I’m still thinking about her.

  “What’s up with her visions? She seemed bitter when I asked about them,” I say to Dice as we drive down the highway, following behind the Somage.

  If they’re going after a slave ring, she’s right about it taking priority.

  “When you’re a kid and someone forces you to use enough power to open the gates of purgatory, it tends to fuck with you. Her visions became fewer and fewer over the years. Now she gets premonitions here and there, but nothing that helps too much. She has to strain hard to get the few she does get, and they’re usually the leads they use to track down more leads.”

  Frowning, I glance at him. “How long has she been running the Somage?”

  “Two years. Pretty damn badass at her job, too. They’ve found about forty slaves and freed them. Prisoners is a more accurate term. They’re chained and bound and left to rot for centuries if no one wants them, unable to die because they’re given just enough blood or anything else they need to sustain themselves for survival. And they’re forced to survive. The ones not bought are used for scientific experimentation to search for weaknesses among the various species.”

  I shudder just thinking about it. We found many slave holding cells during my time in the Somage, but mostly it was other immortals collecting rare beings such as Kimber. Sick and twisted fucks.

  “Without her visions, she’s nothing more powerful than a strong human. She shouldn’t be out fighting and running the Somage.”

  Dice snorts while shaking his head. “And you thought Alyssa was naïve.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask, growing tired of the smirking incubus.

  “Hashtag… Yeah… No real good hashtag to use there. You’ll see, though. Soon, I’m sure. Kimber doesn’t play nice.”

  The mountain we’re driving around is steep, curvy, and very fucking high in altitude. What lead could they possibly have—

  “Son of a bitch!” Dice yelps as our car gets pummeled by a vicious boulder that I never heard or saw coming. It slams into us, driving us off the road, and nearly pushing us off the side of the cliff.

  I grit my teeth while uselessly trying to guide the car to a safe stop. Dice is pushed against me, since his side of the car is absorbing most of the impact. Glass is shattered and flying around the spinning vehicle, and I have to use my magic to help us skid back into the center of the road.

  The mountain begins thundering as a landslide ignites, more boulders toppling from the peak that we’ve nearly reached, and I leap out of the car to start racing toward Kimber. She’s fucking defenseless.

  A damn boulder might not kill her immortal body, but whatever just caused this landslide will definitely be strong enough to fuck with her. I can’t believe the mighty four let her fight without her having any line of self-defense.

  The boulders collide and crash around the curve where I can’t see, and I split the planes, vaporizing quicker than I can run, becoming a shadow that exists neither here nor there. The wind vibrates in my ears just as I rematerialize in the middle of the wreckage.

  “Get up there!” I hear Kimber yelling just as people blur into motion.

  I barely get a glimpse of her blonde hair as she flips and lands on the mountainside, disappearing into the thick of the trees that still have boulders crashing through them. I’m going to throttle her when I catch up.

  Vaporizing again, I beat most of them to the top, only met by other dark users who can do as I do. There’s a clearing we’ve ended up in—a circle of nothing but dirt amongst the trees. My jaw goes slack when I see the autumn eyes staring at us, looking like fall has descended within their rich depths.

  “Werewolves,” I growl just as a woman steps forward, her raven’s hair smooth and still as she approaches the head of the pack.

  “Werecats,” Kimber corrects at my side, appearing from almost nowhere. How’d she get up here this fast?

&n
bsp; But her words confuse me more than her speed. Werecats in a pack? That’s rare. Werecats are usually loners.

  “This land is sacred and protected. The new queen has no right to invade us, because we live by her laws,” the woman asserts. How the hell did she know who we were?

  Her claws are quite literally out, a warning that she’ll shift at any second if we make her feel so inclined.

  “We’re not here to invade. We’re here to ask questions. You escaped from a prison, and I want to know where it was so I can free the rest.”

  The woman glares at Kimber when she finishes her demands.

  “I don’t know what you think you know, but I didn’t escape from the prison. I was sold to a demon who needed my blood for survival after a hexer got ahold of him. That’s where I escaped from. He didn’t have charmed bars to keep me in, and the second his back was turned, I shifted and fled. That was over five years ago. I never knew the whereabouts of the prison. It was isolated.”

  Kimber curses while running a hand through her hair, and I study the werecat in front of me, noting the various slave markings on the parts of her body that I can see. The serpent one on her arm is the one I recognize the best, and I watch how far it wraps up her arm, disappearing under her short sleeve.

  “You were a slave for a long time,” I say gently, trying to be compassionate about her warranted trepidation.

  She may not know where the ring is, but she knows something that could help.

  The mistrust in her eyes shifts, revealing the pain she’s trying to hide. Self-consciously, she rubs her snake with her other hand, trailing it to where it disappears.

  “Three centuries. Doesn’t mean I know where I was. The places we were taken were amongst other planes usually—not part of the breathing world.”

  “Meaning you couldn’t have escaped even if you wanted to,” I sigh, frowning. “Not without the help of someone who can travel between the planes.”

  She nods somberly, her eyes lost now that she seems to be thinking back to a worse time.

  “Maybe you could share your story?” I ask, taking a cautious step forward.

  When her pack hisses in warning, I hold my ground, not advancing anymore.

  “My story needs to be kept quiet. I’ve been locked away once for who I am. I refuse to expose myself anymore,” she growls bitterly, and the rest of her pack starts growling as well, but none of them shift—which is unusual. Most all were would have shifted the second they felt threatened, but they’re holding their flesh forms.

  All women. The entire pack is made up of only women, which is odd. Unless… “You’re a lioness pack,” I say aloud, and all their eyes go wide in surprise as the growls deepen. “And since you’re the alpha female of this pride, you’re considered a rare creature. I assumed lioness packs were extinct.”

  Her lips curl back in a snarl as her fangs extend, and several of the women shift, dropping down to their beautiful, golden-fur forms.

  “You should leave,” the alpha female says, her rumbling warning growing.

  “How about not pissing them off,” Kimber hisses, moving in front of me to take control of the situation.

  She starts undoing one of the black leather cuffs on her wrists until it falls open, revealing a tribal marking. Another slave marking.

  I don’t remember that being on her as a child. Surely she wouldn’t have gotten it as a means of sympathizing with slave-ring victims. That’s shitty if she did, even though she was a slave herself. Those marks are deeper than mortal scars ever thought about being.

  The growling dies down as the pack leader stares at the marking, realization settling in.

  “How long?” she asks Kimber.

  “Nowhere nearly as long as you. I’m trying to save others from going through what you have. All I need are answers. The more I know, the more people I can save.”

  Her voice is calm, coaxing, and almost relaxing to even me. It’s the worst possible time to glance down at her ass, especially since it has me groaning internally. Of all the damn women for me to—

  “Not here,” the alpha says, her eyes dulling down. “Follow us.”

  She waves her hand, and we all follow at a safe, nonthreatening distance. Werecats are unpredictable. An entire pack of werecats… That’s just asking for trouble.

  Chapter 3

  KIMBER

  “So they drugged you every time they moved you,” I say, summing up all the pack leader, Sheila, has told me.

  “As I said, I never saw where I was. The planes make no sense to someone who can’t move throughout them, so even if I hadn’t been drugged, I still couldn’t have helped you.”

  Damn. It’d be nice to be a visionary with a vision right about now.

  “They took from you,” she says frowning. “Your powers will never return. Is this vengeance or a rescue mission?”

  Shit. In order to get her to confide in me, I had to confide in her first. War stories bond people quicker than anything. Fortunately, I managed to get her alone for this conversation, expelling her pack and my people to the outside.

  “Both,” I say honestly, knowing an alpha lioness has the ability to sniff out a lie. “Vengeance if I find the ones who murdered my parents and took me. Rescue mission for everyone in between.”

  She smiles as though she understands. “Will you continue this crusade if you find the ones responsible for your parents’ deaths?”

  It’s a test—not just a question. But I have the true answer she wants to hear.

  “I’ll hunt until the last unsanctioned prison is found, until the last innocent soul is saved, or until they kill me for getting too close.”

  Her grin is quick, and just as fast, she masks it behind her otherwise stoic expression.

  “You haven’t lied to me yet. It’s obvious you’re here for the right reasons. Can you say the same for the rest of the ones who are with you?”

  “You know as well as I do this world is full of people you can’t trust. The problem is the fact that I need them, so I have to trust them enough. But if you want me to keep something quiet, I can promise to you that I will do all I can to fulfill such a request.”

  She studies me long and hard, discreetly sniffing the air for a lie. Her lips thin after a long moment.

  “Is there anyone you trust completely?” she asks, her eyes on me.

  Unbidden, Gage pops into my mind, and I have no idea why. I haven’t seen him since I was a child, but I know Alyssa trusts him. I also know Drackus trusts him. That’s enough for me. And then there’s Dice. Annoying as he is, he’s also one of the most trustworthy people out there.

  The others I barely know. At the most, I’ve known some of them for the two years I’ve been running the Somage.

  “There are two outside, and I have a family. The queen being one of the members of my family. Why do you ask?”

  Her eyes go wide, and then a slow smile spreads.

  “Then you can keep her safe.”

  “Her?” I ask.

  She completely ignores that questions and goes on as though it was never asked. “There’s something you must know first. She doesn’t trust anyone very well, and though she seems juvenile and free-spirited, don’t doubt that she’s dangerous. If she feels threatened, she will make you wish you were dead. You’ll need my name to even get her to speak to you. And this,” she says, removing a necklace.

  She stares at the silver chain for a moment. It holds a blue stone, though it doesn’t seem to be magical at all.

  “She’s a survivor, and she has the power to split the planes.”

  My heartbeat kicks up, and the lioness werecat hears it. She grins while handing me the necklace.

  “What is she?” I ask while accepting the unremarkable stone that doesn’t seem to harness any power or true meaning at all.

  “Something that isn’t supposed to exist.”

  Chapter 4

  GAGE

  Kimber walks out, and I push off from the giant oak tree—one of many that surr
ounds the mountaintop cottage that doesn’t look big enough to house an entire pack. I idly wonder if she realizes how sexy she walks, or if it’s entirely on accident.

  She pulls her discarded wrist cuff back out and laces it into place, covering the marks that have aroused my curiosity.

  “Alex,” she says, her authoritative tone far too enticing when combined with her body.

  “Yeah,” the dark user answers, sidling up next to her.

  “Take the others back to the main house. See if you can come up with anything from our other notes. The werecat knows nothing. The queen has summoned me.”

  He curses while looking over his shoulder. Alyssa called her in? Now?

  “How long?” he asks, not sounding particularly thrilled with her announcement.

  “I don’t know yet. Just go to the house and see what you can dig up.”

  Her eyes meet mine as her sexy strut carries her toward me, and I accidentally let my eyes rake over her once again. It’s a shame I can’t touch her the way I want to.

  It’s not like I’ve been celibate since Alyssa, but I haven’t wanted anyone the way I want Kimber right now. Then again, I always have been a sucker for the things I can’t have.

  “You’re with me,” she says quietly when she reaches me, but she doesn’t slow down.

  She thinks I’m just going to follow her?

  Hell no.

  Dice snickers, mocking me with his eyes. Kimber apparently whispers the same thing to him, shutting him up and bringing on his serious face. He exchanges a look with me, then glances over his shoulder before we start heading back down the mountainside.

  Apparently she doesn’t want to speak in front of her people, so I vaporize, splitting the planes once again, staying in limbo as a shadow in both, and letting the molecules of my body painlessly separate as I shimmer down, casting a spell simultaneously to heal my poor battered Rolls-Royce Phantom.

  As I rematerialize, my eyes widen in surprise to see Kimber already driving up beside me, her car looking a little banged up, but nothing serious. How in the hell did she beat me down here?