Sacrifice (Succubus Kiss Book 3)

Her soul is on the line...

Kenna's determination to free herself from the wraith continues to grow, but she isn't willing to pay the cost of the rare spell she recently learned of.

However, everything changes when she does the unthinkable.

Knowing her time as herself is limited, Kenna struggles to cope with what she's done and to find a new way to fight against the wraith. It isn't until someone steps forward who is more than willing to sacrifice eternity for her salvation that her battle within intensifies and she finds herself at a crossroads.

Will Kenna allow someone to pay the ultimate price for her soul or will she give in and let the wraith have what he's wanted from the beginning?

PREFACE

The wraith’s laughing grew closer. He was making his way up the hill at a carefree pace. Anger mingled with my panic, fueling my rapidly pounding heartbeat. I hated him. I hated everything he stood for. Most of all, I hated what he was doing to me, what he would do to me.

My eyes skimmed the shack. There were two windows caked in dust on either side of the door. If I could bust one open before he reached me, I might be able to hoist myself inside. Maybe I could use something to block the window, or maybe there would be a weapon.

What could you fight a wraith with though? Wraiths were already dead.

Moving to one of the windows, I wiped my palm against the glass and smeared the dust away so I could see inside. What I saw chilled me to my core.

The entire house was filled with ghosts.

A rainbow of auras floated through the one-room shack in the shape of people. Men, women, and even a few children were congregating inside. What the hell was this place? A storage container for the dearly departed?

While some seemed more animated than others as they flew around franticly, searching for a way out, others appeared stagnant as they slumped in a corner or lay on the floor, unmoving. I wondered if those ones had given up finding a way out. I didn’t have much time to think about it, because the wraith was breathing against the back of my neck, his icy fingers trailing along my spine.

“Do you like what you see?” he whispered. “Don’t worry. You’ll be in there before long too. No need to rush,” he teased.

I swallowed hard. “What is this place?” My muscles tensed from his close proximity, urging me to run, but I knew it would be fruitless. I was trapped between the wraith and the rough wood of the cabin.

“It’s where I store the souls I’ve overtaken.” He breathed against the back of my neck.

Shivers slipped along my spine as I inspected those trapped inside, counting them as best I could. There appeared to be hundreds. Either this wraith had gotten around, or he was older than I thought.

“Aren’t they pretty?” He tugged on a few strands of my hair. “I bet you never thought my collection of souls would be so vast.”

My eyes widened as the ghost of a little girl floated to the window. She pressed a hand against the pane, eyeing me. Her aura was my favorite shade of yellow—bright and shiny amid the sea of blues, pinks, and greens. Her eyes locked with mine. I could sense the sadness and pain in them. Her lips moved, mouthing the words, “Help me.”

Sickness twisted my gut. “Why would you keep them like this? What purpose could they serve you now?” The words tumbled from my mouth without much thought. My hand pressed against the glass pane, covering the little girl’s, wishing I could help her.

“The same reason most serial killers keep trinkets from their victims.” The wraith ran his fingers through my hair, pressing his body flush against mine. “To remember them by.”

CHAPTER ONE

Dear God, I had become one of those girls. The type I hated most. The kind who acted as though they couldn’t breathe without their boyfriend shoved up their ass. This was what I thought about as warm hands slipped beneath my tank top to caress against my stomach. Randal had mentioned the need to visit Red River, as well as run a few other errands, and instantly, my heart pounded. The desire to ask if I could tag along burned across the tip of my tongue, but I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to keep the words at bay.

When had this happened to me? When had I become one of those girls?

If I thought hard enough—and was completely honest with myself—I could pinpoint when. It happened after returning home from Avalon Bay. Something inside of me changed during that trip, and not for the better. The search for Lexy Bloom—who happened to be the only witch I knew of with the power to rid me of the vile wraith taking up residency inside of me—had gone well. We had found her little shop, Bloom’s Garden, without trouble, and after pleading my case to her, she had agreed to help with minimal resistance. While I had felt horrible once she informed me of the toll performing a spell of this caliber would take on her, the feeling disappeared the second she elaborated on what the spell would cost me.

My soul.

No matter how you twisted it, that was the price I would pay. The spell called for someone to willingly die for me. Lexy had explained it as a balance that needed to be kept. Some sort of eye for an eye, life for a life bullshit was what I was guessing it boiled down to. It had been four days since we left Avalon Bay, and I still hadn’t shared the precious cost the spell called for with anyone. The time to mention it seemed to have passed. If I were to divulge it now, wouldn’t I seem as though I had been considering the idea in depth?

“You appear lost in thought. What has your mind so consumed?” Randal’s scent invaded my senses as he shifted closer to me. There was something about his particular aroma—all spicy and masculine—I loved. His intense stare swept over me when I didn’t answer right away. I could feel his eyes skimming my face.

“Nothing.” I shifted to look at him, hoping I had skillfully kept my thoughts from my eyes. Randal was good at reading people. It was something that came with age, I presumed. “Just wondering what the best way to celebrate my freedom tonight is.” There was a teasing quality laced within my words. I was proud of myself.

If anyone deserved an Oscar, it would be me for the performance I was about to give.

Randal arched a brow, his gray eyes catching the fragments of light in the room and reflecting them back to me. “Feeling a bit brazen, are you?”

A smile twisted my lips. This man was sexy as sin, and he was all mine. Maybe that was why I didn’t want him to leave for the night. My stomach hardened as soon as the thought surfaced, because I knew it wasn’t the truth. I didn’t want him to leave because I was scared to be alone; that was the raw and honest reality of the situation.

Never in my life did I remember feeling this afraid to be alone, not when my mother left, or even after my father passed away from lung cancer.

Somehow, I had allowed myself to become submerged in Randal, to use him as an escape from the things tormenting me, both mentally and physically. I hadn’t been alone since before our trip. While things had been smooth since leaving Avalon Bay, I somehow must have associated that smoothness with having Randal at my side twenty-four-seven. I shouldn’t have, but there was no denying I had. As my limbs trembled with the thought of being alone with my thoughts and the wraith for the night, the realization couldn’t be clearer.

“Maybe I am.” I reached out and trailed a fingertip down his sculpted chest until I reached the white sheet bunched up at his waist.

A thought hit me from nowhere: It wasn’t that I was afraid to be alone, but that Randal served as a beautiful distraction from the finer details of my life.

I could handle this viewpoint. In fact, I preferred it to deeming myself as being too scared to be alone. At least then I could exclude myself from the category of females who were so damn clingy you wanted to shake them.

Randal leaned into me and trailed soft kisses across my bare shoulder. “Does this mean you are ready for a second round, then?” His hot breath slipped along the sensitive area where my neck and shoulder met.

When he lifted his stare to lock with mine, I pressed my lips to his, letting my actions answer his question. The feel of his lips on mine sent fire through my veins, engulfing me in the only sensation that could derail my mind from the wraith and the insane price I would have to pay to be rid of it—lust. It pumped through me, waking every cell in my body and energizing it with an unquenchable hunger for more. It was a double-edged sword. It detoured my mind from my life-threatening predicament, but it also fed the wraith in small increments, allowing him to gain strength. 

Thank goodness for the teas Lexy had given me. Without them, I was positive the amount of sex Randal and I had taken part in since our return would have given the wraith all the power he needed to overtake me. While the tea designed to suppress my heightened desire to feed and slow my metabolism tasted horrible, it must have been working because I still felt in control…except for when it came to Randal, of course. I couldn’t get enough of him.

As my tongue found Randal’s, I deepened our kiss. He moaned his approval, and then shifted his body until he was hovering above me. I wrapped one of my legs around his waist, pulling him closer while letting him know I was ready to propel to new heights when he was. A need for him to be inside of me pinched through my core as I rocked against him to further get my point across. It was times like this when I found myself wondering if the things Lexy had sent me home with were laced with an aphrodisiac or two, because my desire for Randal seemed to be all consuming at times.

When his hand cupped my right breast, and he gently rolled my nipple between his finger and thumb, causing it to pebble from the friction, I knew there was nothing in the things Lexy had given me. This was something else, something far more chemical and primal to be caused by a potion. While I did harbor feelings for Randal, I also knew not having sex with anyone for over a year played a huge part in my sudden flare of libido, as well as it serving as the best way to distract me from my life.

He lifted my tank top, exposing my breasts to the cool air of the room. In the span of a heartbeat, his head dipped and he pulled the nipple he’d been fondling into the hot recesses of his mouth. I withered beneath him, enjoying the feel of his tongue and the heat of his breath. My eyes closed as the pulse of pleasure throbbing through my core became nearly overwhelming. When he shifted, moving to give the same amount of attention to my left breast as he had my right, I trailed my fingers down the length of his back and around to rub his erection through his boxer briefs. Every muscle in his body stiffened at my touch, and an animalistic growl came from between his parted lips as I increased my pressure. Tingles of excitement from the sound cascaded through me. I hoped this time when we had sex, it wouldn’t fall into the category of sensual lovemaking. Hopefully, Randal would finally let loose like he had during our first time together. When he bit at my nipple harder, I knew I was about to get what I wished for.

Our eyes locked for a moment, allowing me a glimpse of the dark and dangerous flickers of emotion heightening the cool gray of his eyes. My pulse quickened as adrenaline spiked through my system. Was this bloodlust I was seeing reflected in his stare? While I knew it had been days since he fed, due to our inability to separate for even an hour, I wasn’t sure exactly how long it had been for him.

Randal snaked his fingers through my hair and tugged my head back, exposing my neck to him. A surprised gasp escaped me from the gesture. While I had fantasized about him feeding from me, and what it would feel like, I never imagined it actually happening. My heart pounded inside my chest as his lips skimmed along the side of my throat. A groan left him, as though he was tempting himself with his actions, and I fisted the sheets, suddenly on edge. As his teeth nipped and bit at my flesh while his tongue tasted, my tense muscles loosened and so did my grip.

Abruptly moving to pull my top off, Randal leaned back and I was able to catch a glance at his face again. His eyes were hooded with lust while still darkened by hunger. Fear constricted my lungs at the sight of it. I wondered how he would be able to hold himself back, but also if I wanted him to. My body sparked with both anxiety and excitement.

Randal’s bright eyes shifted to mine, and he arched a brow. “Don’t worry. I am in control.” His lips twisted into a devious smile before they brushed against mine. “Even though I am certain I must appear a blood-lusting fool, I can assure you I will not bite you…unless you ask me to.” His fingers traveled to my panty-covered center, where they moved in a torturously slow rhythm I was positive would push me to the brink in no time.

I dug my nails into his back and ground against his fingers, wishing they would slip past the fabric without having to ask. At this point, I couldn’t care less if Randal bit me. As long as it didn’t mess up his thrusting power or cause me any pain, I was good. All I wanted was him inside of me.

“Do what you want,” I breathed without a second thought. “As long as it doesn’t hurt, I’m okay with it.”

He pulled back as though he couldn’t believe I was giving him permission to feed from me. “Are you certain?” A challenge reflected in the depths of his eyes struck me, sending an erotic shiver down my spine. It was almost as though he was saying I couldn’t handle what his feeding from me would make me feel.

“Absolutely.” My heart beat triple time as the word slipped past my lips. This was something taboo, something forbidden, and something incredibly erotic. Was I really as okay with it as I was pretending to be? I wasn’t sure. “But like I said, only if it doesn’t hurt,” I added, just so we were clear.

“When a vampire bites someone they care for, it never hurts.” A wry hint of a smile curled the corners of his mouth. “It is where the term ‘love bite’ stems from, I do believe.”

His thumbs hooked into the sides of my panties as he shifted his weight off me. I froze, my muscles growing tense as I worried he would dive forward and pierce my skin without warning. Instead, he pulled my panties to my knees in a fluid motion, his stare unwavering. I released a breath and maneuvered beneath him so he could get them all the way off. Once they had been discarded to the floor, I reached to level the playing field by removing his boxer briefs, but he gripped my wrists, freezing me in place. My heart kick-started.

“In time,” he whispered as he pushed my knees farther apart.

I stared at him, waiting to see what his next move would be. He bent forward until his head was between my thighs. The sensation of his lips grazing against the flesh of my inner thigh made my stomach coil, but the prick of his teeth puncturing my skin made my back arch up off the mattress.

Pain and pleasure intermingled to form a new sensation. It was white-hot and riveting all at once. Randal’s fingers found their way to my slick center and proceeded to finish the task they had abandoned moments before while he continued to suck greedily and lovingly at the same time. My hands fisted the sheets as I struggled to control myself, wanting to enjoy the building in my core longer than a few seconds, but not knowing if I could hold out.

I knew one thing for certain: Sex after this would never be the same.

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