Poison's Kiss (Deadly Beauties 2)

Before he reaches me this time, he's thrown backwards and pinned to the wall. Glass shatters behind his accidental trail of destruction, and then I'm suddenly joining him, shrieking as my feet lift from the ground and I stay suspended against the wall when I pound into it.

I feel powerless, almost subdued by a night stalker, as I struggle uselessly against the invisible force I can't see.

"Fuck," Kane grunts, straining with all his might to move his hand.

I can tell he's trying to get to his phone, so I do my best to aide him with my magic. That endeavor proves to be completely pointless when nothing within me stirs the least. It feels like there's a lock on my powers and an anvil on my chest.

"There you are," a familiar voice says, and Kane's eyes grow wide when he finds the girl before I do.

The blond from his party - the one Amy knocked out. It's her?

"Kane Ice and his little chew toy, how sweet," she drawls out, slowly walking down my stairs as if this is her house.

How did she get past my barrier? I'm starting to think it's pointless to even cast a protection spell these days.

"Fucking shit, Jen, what are you doing?" Kane strains out, barely keeping an understandable tone against her crushing force - the spirit's crushing force she's channeling.

Her black halter top reveals more cleavage than most women care to show, and her tight, hip-hugging pants reveal all of her perfectly shaped curves as she swishes her hips from side to side. Her hair is cut and styled exactly like mine. Creepy.

"What am I doing?" Her laughter follows the question she considers to be rhetorical.

Does she really expect us to know the reason for her insanity?

"You thought I was just some bimbo you could taste and toss away, didn't you?"

This is her reasoning behind the madness? Oh good grief.

"Jen, it wasn't like that. It was-"

"It was what, Kane? Tell me," she barks, though she doesn't allow time for a response before continuing. "It was a feed? A night of fun? You picked the wrong girl. I've been hunting down the fey for years. One of your kind killed and butchered my family before leaving me just barely alive. I shouldn't have survived, but I did. I knew I'd track down all of you and slaughter you with as much mercy as my family was offered."

Kane winces, the scars of his own tortured past suddenly tainting his face. I'm such a callous bitch that I never even told him I knew what Castine did to his family before turning him.

"I know you think I'm the enemy, Jen, but I'm not. I was a victim, just like you, only I was turned instead of left for dead. It isn't black and white. I swear I've never killed anyone who didn't deserve to die. You have though. You've killed and hurt more good people than I have."

"Ha! The shapeshifter? You call him good? He was a blood-sucking demon just like you. When he was dying, I was shown the sins of his past, just as I've seen the sins of your past. Amy? The bitch that refused to just die, you call her good? She's a blood-sucking demon, too. Her beast is too savage for you to fathom, and it's only going to get worse. And then there's the werecat. That bitch had shredded more innocent lives than even you. She deserved a much crueler death than I had time to spare."

I'm suddenly curious about this sinful past of Kane's, but he's a night stalker. On some level I knew there was a destructive and deadly trail. Not to mention, this isn't the time.

Right now I need to focus on getting out from under this hold. It's so much harder than it was earlier. Apparently this bitch didn't use so much strength then.

A distressed grunt slips through my lips when I'm unable to snap free from the invisible force. I glare at her, wishing my magic would just break through the fabric I can't see.

"Feisty little snack you've found," she snarks after a long pause, and then she kneels to the floor and presses the palm of her right hand to the hardwood.

"Just let her go. It's me you want," Kane grunts out through gritted teeth, his words sounding more and more labored each time.

She tilts her head, her crazy eyes meeting mine. "But she wants her."

She?

"Who... wants-"

That's all I can manage. The force on my chest is too painful to let anymore words escape. How in the hell has Kane been talking?

The crazy girl just laughs ridiculously loud, and beneath her hand forms a flash of fire and then smoke. It clears quickly with a magical aid, and then the pentagram is all that is left on the floor beneath her hand. I get sick, knowing this is it.

"The one who died because of you," she murmurs vaguely, leaving me only more confused.