Ink & Dagger (Sins of Eden #1)

31. Chapter XXXI

Chapter XXXI

Emily

F ucking, fuck. All of the Spirits were out to play tonight and I couldn’t afford to linger, or worse, be caught.

Creeping silently through the alley between the warehouses, I carefully avoided the blinding flood lights of the buildings and stayed within the shadows. I’d never seen this many Spirits in one place before.

The troubling thing about it all wasn’t the amount of souls that roamed here, it was their magical signatures that made me uneasy. Witches young and old wandered lost through this abandoned area, as if they too were searching for something.

My skin tingled in awareness as I walked down a semi-lit path between the warehouses. I was getting close, I could feel it, but to what? I had no clue. I slinked forward slowly and froze in my tracks as I turned the corner. Two men were leaning up against the wall of the building just ahead. One of the men turned his head slightly as he flicked his cigarette and my eyes widened in surprise.

Matthew Garrett. I didn’t know what Erik’s Beta was doing here, but it looked like he and the other were guarding that door. Backtracking slightly, I went around the other side and kept my back against the wall, avoiding the lights.

No one other than the Spirits here could actually see me, but if I drew attention to myself, then they’d sense me. I paused as a man covered in dark crimson blood pushed through the back door and lit a cigarette. Inhaling deeply, he let out a large cloud of smoke before turning his head slightly and sniffing the air. On instinct, I held my breath as I stepped back slightly, watching him just from the corner of the warehouse and sighed out a breath of relief as he flicked his cigarette butt, shifted into his Lycan form, and took off around the corner.

I stayed where I was for two minutes, silently counting to myself to be sure he wouldn’t come back, before sprinting to the same door he’d come through and slowly pulling it open.

As I made my way past the dusty machinery, chills spread across my translucent skin. Something strong as fuck was down below. Shaking out my arms, I silently hyped myself up and passed through the iron door blocking off the basement. I staggered back in horror as I reached the bottom step.

What the fuck did I just walk in on?

The roar from the Demon in front of me froze me in place. He rattled his chains, blood dripping from his wrists, as he attempted to pull them from the ground and paused as his head whipped in my direction.

The sounds of shouting from the other occupants of the room filled my ears, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the angry onyx eyes of the man before me. Blinding light filled the room and I was thrown backwards, the force of it jolting me and ejecting my soul back into my body.

I gasped as I returned to the hard floor of my studio, my body shaking and my breathing uneven as I tried to figure out what in the fuck had just happened.

I couldn’t tell how long I’d been in the in-between for, but somehow I’d made it back. As I reached for my phone, I cursed under my breath. The battery was still dead since I’d forgotten to charge it when I’d gotten here and I had no way to gauge the time. I quickly stood and blew out the candles surrounding me and thanked the Triple Goddess that she’d brought me back unharmed. Well, my body at least. My mind was fully fucked after witnessing that Demon and the way they had him chained like a rabid animal.

I connected my phone to the spare charger by my desk and thought over everything I’d witnessed. What the fuck were Lycans doing with a Prince of Hell? And what was that blinding light that forced me into my own body?

My phone lit up letting me know it was back on and as I glanced at it I noticed that not only was it the 31st of May, but I’d missed several calls from Charlie. How the fuck had I spent an entire day in the in-between when it had only felt like hours? Charlie and I hadn’t checked in with each other since yesterday, but hopefully she’d be home by now and I could tell her everything that I’d witnessed.

I reached my hand up to my throat to grip my pendant, remembering that I’d left it at home, just as glass shattered in the distance.

Shit, happy fucking birthday to me.

I took off in a sprint down the hall and froze when I made it to the lobby. What I found before me made me sick to my stomach. Not only was Erik piss drunk and standing in my studio, but the glass windows of my shop lay broken on the ground surrounding him where he’d smashed his way in with the metal baseball bat that he rested over his broad shoulder. An eerie sense of calm washed over me as I stared him down.

This ended tonight.

“Ohhh, Emily. My little whore,” he said, enunciating the last bit before he stumbled and shook his head.

He pointed the end of his baseball bat at me and took a few steps into the room. The sound of crunching glass grated on every fucking nerve in my body and lit the fuse of anger that I’d been harboring for this pathetic man.

This time I was fucking ready. I locked my jaw and waited patiently as he drew closer. His biggest mistake was that he didn’t kill me the last time he’d tried, and I was going to make sure he regretted it until his last breath.

I turned and ran for the back and like the fool he was, he gave chase. Thinking that just like every other time, I’d be easy prey.

I didn’t bother to look back as I ran, but I could tell he hadn’t shifted. His boots stomped hard on the floor as he pursued me and smashed things with that damn bat along the way with every step he took, making sure to cause as much damage as he could.

With my black tourmaline crystal in hand, I called out to the Triple Goddess in hushed tones as I sprinted around the corner and hid behind the door of my casting room.

“Triple Moon, hear my plea,

Take his sight and bind his feet.

Take his speech so he can’t lie,

Seal his fate and make all right.

Mother Goddess, I ask of thee.

Maiden Goddess, set me free.

Crone of night, so mote it be.”

Erik barged through the door, swinging his bat blindly as he tried to seek me out and I sprung into action. Slamming the door shut behind him, I used my magic to blast him into the wall.

He tried to stand upright, but couldn’t find his footing to do more than brace himself as my curse worked through him. His wordless scream of frustration ricocheting throughout the small room.

I pushed him into the hard wooden chair beside my desk, laughing in his face as he tried to fight my hands off of him. I sounded almost deranged to even my own ears, but fuck was I glad to finally have the upper hand.

I pulled ropes from a box on the bottom shelf and got to work, binding his arms behind him and securing both ankles to the legs of the chair. Once I was done I took a step back and admired my handiwork, dusting my hands and blowing out a steadying breath.

Not bad for my first time with a curse of this magnitude.