Three Trials (The Dark Side, #2)

by Kristy Cunning

Thank you for reading! Welcome to the dark side… Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. You knew I was going to say it eventually.

My words are cut off when he’s suddenly on me, kissing me hard as he lifts the flimsy little skirt that doesn’t even cover all of my ass and presses me against the cave wall. He reaches between us and rips away the scrap of lace, and my breath catches, forcing me to break the kiss, when his fingers find my clit. My eyes almost cross, and I clutch his shoulder, amazed by how much better it feels when someone else touches me than when I touch myself. Ignoring the terribly inappropriate timing, my lips hungrily find his, and I moan into his mouth as he starts working a finger inside me, his thumb still working those incredible circles at the exact right speed and perfect pressure. I can’t even think. He kisses his way down my throat, and my nails dig into his tux jacket as he drives me insane with very little effort. The orgasm hits me so much faster than it has under my own manipulations. My entire body shudders and comes alive with sensation, and I kiss him even harder, needing more of him as I clench around his fingers, not feeling that hollow sensation quite as much. He manages to break the kiss, pulling back as he pants heavily and stares into my eyes. He brings his finger up

and sucks it like he’s tasting the most intimate part of my body from the one piece of his body that has touched it. My eyes grow hooded, and that uncontrollable desire spikes even more like I’m caught in a haze. He closes his eyes like he’s savoring the taste, and my hands mindlessly go to his belt, undoing it like now he’s mine to have. His hands clasp around my wrists, halting me, and I look up to see his taunting smirk. “If we could have you, I wouldn’t be so selfish. I’d make sure you were well sated before taking mine, and I’d make you crave me as often as possible. The fact that I’m not your favorite kills me. But because of that aching need to be your favorite, I know you’d be the end of us.” He pushes away and starts walking, while I try to gather my senses. I shift back to my phantom form, still feeling the aftershocks of my first orgasm that wasn’t self-induced. Who knew there were varying degrees of pleasure like that? Just a taste and I’m addicted. “Truthfully, you’re totally my favorite right now,” I tell him honestly as we exit the cave.

“Something as tempting as you can only be forbidden,” Jude says, releasing his cock as he starts walking toward us.

“It’s like skunk and dead rodents festered in that thing, and I had to choke it down multiple times because of sober-phantom-me.

“Got a pretty little naked girl here looking for you,” Harold tells him. Hmm…that might work too. “Don’t give a fuck,” the familiar voice of Gage says with a little more definition in his tone. Harold glances over at me, and I give him the get-on-with-it look. “Comoara trădătoare, is what she says—” His words are cut off, when Gage is suddenly in the room and throwing him up against the wall with his hand clutching Harold’s throat. Harold’s eyes widen in horror, as the phone slips from his hand and he struggles to pull Gage’s hand away. “Where’d you hear that phrase?” he growls, putting his face right in front of Harold. “From the treacherous treasure herself, of course,” I drawl, wiggling my fingers at him.

Harold collapses in a heap as he heaves for air, while Gage turns a black-eyed murderous glare on me, his lip snarling as he moves toward me in a less-than-ideal manner. He looks pissed instead of apologetic for having buried me. In a blink, his hand is suddenly on my throat as he tosses me against the wall and starts strangling me. “Who the fuck are you?” he snaps. I shove his chest so hard he’s launched across the room, hitting the wall with so much force that he bounces to the ground beside Harold. Harold grabs his abandoned sword, racing toward me, but a renewed sense of energy is swirling through me after having felt Gage’s touch. I sling him across the room without even touching him. That sword clatters across the ground, and Gage grabs it, his eyes on me as he slowly stands, weapon in hand. “Have you lost your damn mind?” I shout. “How long did I have to be dead before you assholes forgot me?!” I see just a spark of hesitation. “You have a handful of seconds to drop that sword before I sling you like sleeping Harold,” I warn him, gesturing at Harold, who is unconscious. “I would rather be

Ezekiel’s hands slide around my waist, almost as though he’s drawing some of that peace out of me. Rather ironic that I provide peace, given the obvious. “The end of the world offers the four of you peaceful dreams. I’m starting to wonder just how mad you must have been,” I state dryly. Jude’s lips twitch as he leans over to my ear. “That means we were really fucking terrible before you.” Suppressing a shiver, I stare at Gage as he grins enigmatically. “After a century of peaceful rest in her chambers, the four awoke ready to destroy the entire world so it would only be the five of them,” he says conversationally. “Geez, you psychos,” I say on a breath. “You even scared the Devil’s daughter.” Gage chuckles, handing the book off to Kai as though he’s amused. Kai grins broadly.

“Apocalypse, being ever so vain, refused to admit failure. Besides, she’d gotten so attached to the four after watching over them for a solid century that she couldn’t bear to hand them over to Lucifer to drain the power from and toss back into hell’s black heart.” Kai pauses his reading, meeting my eyes. “So she gave all four of them a piece of her sacred balance, disrupting her own stability in an effort to save them from themselves,” he adds, holding my gaze. “She tied herself to them, leaving her less than whole. When their bond suffered, she suffered twice as much.” I swallow thickly.

I enjoyed killing an insignificant mortal man. I also left a fiery trail behind, burning the world around me uncontrollably. All because their bond to each other was hurting so much in the wake of my death. “Simply put, you gave up bits of your much more powerful balance and infused it with ours in an effort to restore our stability by stealing from your own,” Jude says, brushing a piece of my hair away from my shoulder as he stares at me differently. “The power did bond the four...