Nightshade (Nightshade, #1)

by Keri Lake

“I would have to agree. Mostly because I would have the unsound mind to smite any potential suitor who might attempt to rob me of your affection, in a manner most violent.”

“I will see to it that you have new dresses made. Exceptionally warm dresses.” He ran a finger down her cheek and pushed a thin tendril of hair behind her ear. “You will never want for anything again. As my wife, all your needs will be met without question.”

“You do not need words, Lustina. The way your eyes brim with gratitude at the smallest gesture is what I find most irresistible about you.

“It is only you which compels me, Lustina. I do not care for this world enough to concern myself with its other creatures. I would wish them all away and keep you for myself.”

Her gaze dropped to my exposed birthmark, and instinct told me to pull my arm away. “Oh, that is quite an unusual mark.”

If someone is foolish enough to lay so much as a finger on you, their blood is on your hands.”

“He knew it. He was just playing with you. Virgil knows more than he lets on.”

“But! I didn’t touch her in all those years. I want you to know that. She was beautiful. And tempting. Oh, so tempting.” “Touch whom?” An incredulous expression washed over him. “You’re asking me who? The one you nearly gave your soul up for? Hello?” While I continued to puzzle his cryptic words, he frowned. “You don’t remember? At all? Anything?”

“Your soulmate. How utterly nauseating. But to me? The perfect pawn. I just didn’t know you had something bigger on your side at the time. The Sentinels. Who would’ve thought you carried angels’ blood and demons’

didn’t. And now, she has returned to you.” “Who?” “The girl. Your beloved twin flame. And she is as lovely as I remember.”

“There was a time she went by another name, but these days, she goes by Farryn

“I don’t give a good goddamn about your boring romance with a human girl. It’s the prophecy that interests me. The blood moon.”

“It’s not genius, nor brilliance, but fate, my dear friend. For the souls of nonbelievers are destined to perish in the fire.”

Eyes closed, I fell into memories of a girl. The one I’d dreamed about. My curiosity heightened, and as she lifted her hand to push me away, I snatched up her wrist and held her pinned, reveling in her taste. The fight in her fizzled, and she melted against me, her fingers curling into my jacket. When I pulled away from her, the look in her eyes, a cross between fear and wonder, held me captivated a moment longer, before I realized the crowd of men had dispersed.

“Wake for me.” She didn’t move. Didn’t so much as stir, or twitch in his arms. Panicked, he held her face and forced breath into her mouth. “Wake for me, please.”

She slipped from his world like a fragile leaf on the wind. One he longed to chase until the end of time.

“I will look for you in the Nightshade. However long it takes, I will find you and bring you home. Remember me.”

“She is cursed. To be reborn. Again. And again. Never to remember her lives past. And on the eve of the pentad blood moon, she will die as a sacrifice. It is written in scripture, and it has come to pass.”

I long to spend with you. To remember your face, so that I might find you again.”

“Do not forget me, Lustina. Do not forget my love for you.”

“Release him,” I gritted past clenched teeth. He’d clearly manipulated the old man into harming his daughter, as Augustus wouldn’t lay so much as a finger on her, otherwise.

“You promised to return. To come work for me. Instead, I find you pining after a teenage human girl. This is creepy, even for you, my friend.”

The same three that had dragged me to Nightshade all those centuries ago, when I burned down Praecepsia. Half angel, half demon, they’d passed their tests and earned their place as the dark warriors who hunted evil.

“I’ve come to offer you a choice, Jericho. Walk away from her without a single memory of her. Or keep your memories and watch her die.”

resemblance to Lustina is because you are Lustina.”

“The mark on your arm is embedded with a sigil I placed there long ago, so that, should I ever see you again, I would know you. I would remember. My soul would recognize yours.

“Yes. Only an angel can break the curse.” “But you’re not an angel. That’s what you said.” “I am half angel, half demon. And fully qualified to break your curse.”

“A villain is quite capable of love. It’s only the matter of what he’s willing to sacrifice for that love which separates him from a good man.”

“You asked of my regard for human life.” He shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “Depends on the circumstances.”

“This is …. This is some weird, alien romance kinda crap. Impregnating me? That’s one step down from breeding me.”

“You will give yourself to me, Farryn. And you will willingly watch me devour every inch of you like it’s my last fucking meal.”

I wanted to be the object of his lust. Ravaged. I wanted to know the excitement and fear of having my clothes impatiently torn from my body, my overthinking arguments silenced by a hungry mouth. I wanted to put the control in someone else’s hands.

“You belong to me, Farryn. Should another man dare to lay so much as a finger on you, I will flay his hand and shine my boots with his skin.”

“It pleases me to know you’ve not given your heart to another.” Finger hooked beneath my chin, he tipped my head back. “Everything you’ve been denied up until now, I intend to give you. In return, you will give yourself to me. My appetite is both salacious and insatiable, but you will feed it to the point of gluttony. And as such, I will not share you with anyone. Ever.”

“I would choose an eternity of damnation before ever giving up the opportunity to be buried between your thighs.” I pressed my lips together to hide a coy smile. “As flattering as that may be, it isn’t very ambitious.” “No, it’s not. But I believe in the journey, and the path to ambition is rarely as thrilling as the one which leads to perdition.”

“Take what you want from me.”

“However small and black it may be, I gave my heart to you a very long time ago. I’ve been incapable of loving anything since.” He ran his hand over my hair. “It’s not what you would’ve lacked that would’ve compelled me to turn away. It’s what I would’ve lacked.” “And if I’d have never returned to you, at all?” “I was prepared for that possibility, as well.”

thought I made it clear before. I would go to any lengths to protect you, Farryn. Even if it means holding you against your will.”

“Humans are such tempting little creatures.” He licked my neck, taking his time over my hammering pulse. “I don’t know what is it about seeing you restrained that makes me want to fuck you so relentlessly.” His rough voice and hands sent a shiver through me, as he slid my panties down my thighs. “My dangerous little tu’nazhja.” Tu’Nazhja. The tiny bird he’d told me about the day in the woods.

“Remy says I’m to keep you alive. That he needs you for something. Otherwise, I’d happily cut you open right now.” “What are you talking about?” “He’s going to trade you. For redemption.” “What?” With weak and heavy arms, I yanked at my binds. “What’re …” Whatever she’d given me had begun to work its way through my system.

“Because I was the one who took her life. Therefore, I am connected in some strange way. Perhaps the mysterious punishment of the Holy Father for tainting my soul.”

“Drystan intends to have her impregnated.”

“Your father fled to Nightshade in the same manner in which you did, so yes. He’s essentially dead here in the mortal realm, but trapped there.”

She died, though. Are nephilim not immortal?” “They are. But immortality comes with a price. You are then subjected to those more powerful. Those who are capable of ripping your immortality from your body like a ragged old shirt.”

“I was ten,” the stranger said in an eerily spacey voice. “Ten, when he and the others did what they did.”

There is only one way to break the curse. A strange sensation expanded behind my ribs. Pregnant? Confused, I touched my hand to my stomach and turned to face Jericho. His lips slanted into a perplexed-looking smile, gaze flitting between my hand and my face.

“He chose this.” His words pummeled my chest like a heavy rock, and I gasped. “The price to save you was giving up his wings. For a Sentinel, it is essentially giving up his immortality.”

For weeks, I’d studied them, searching for his notes on how to bring a soul back from Ex Nihilo. After all, according to Drystan, my father had been the one to return him from the nothingness.

“As I understand, one did. So, then, that would make Lustina half angel?” “She would have had to be.” “Jericho never mentioned that. He only told me that Lustina’s mother carried the curse.”

My pulse hastened as the possibility of seeing Jericho became more tangible than even a week ago. “Are we sure this is him?”