Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

Gage and Dice look at each other, having a silent conversation and leaving me out. That pisses me off.

“No,” Gage announces, shaking his head while looking back at me. “If you’re not using the Somage, then you’re not tracking this down. Dice and I will take it from here.”

He can’t be serious.

“The hell you are,” I growl, taking a step toward him, even though we remain at least five feet apart.

Gage smirks, looking so damn smug and cocky in this moment that I could slap him.

“Yeah. We are,” he drawls, now looking too in-control as his eyes flick to the isolated house at the end of the long driveway.

“You’re not going in there without me. First of all, you’d never make it past the threshold. Secondly, this is mine. I’ve worked on this for years, even before I joined the Somage. If you think you can just—”

Before I can finish those words, Gage is suddenly in front of me, caging me in against my car as he brings his face dangerously close to mine. As though I’ve forgotten who the hell I am, I lose my breath and shiver—I frigging shiver.

The cool steel of his shiny lip rings distracts me, taunts me, and dares me to get closer. Then he opens his mouth to speak, and I get a glimpse of the piercing in his tongue. Really? Does he have to tempt me in every way possible when I’m trying to think of the various ways I can inflict pain?

Jackass.

His eyes drop to my lips, and he runs his tongue across his bottom lip, letting the metal bar become more visible as he pushes closer.

“You’re a gatekeeper, Kimber,” he says in a voice that shouldn’t be so seductive right now. “You’re a rare breed—even rarer than Ella, since there are only two of you in the world. And the other is a powerful changer that can take care of himself. You—” he lets his eyes trail down me in a way that has my blood heating and my mind cursing my traitorous body “—can’t be here. As I said, we’ll handle it from here.”

With that, he vaporizes from in front of me, and Dice walks by, hiding his grin behind his hand as he follows the stupid sexy dark user that I really hate right now. Why the hell am I reacting like this? No. I’m not some stupid girl or freshly changed immortal that can’t control my hormones.

Steeling myself and trying to rid the unwanted effects that dick has left me with, I turn just in time to see Dice sailing backwards, yelping as he thuds to the ground in front of the sad looking home. Gage is nowhere to be seen, so I guess the bastard managed to get across the threshold, which shouldn’t be possible if what Sheila told me is true.

I curse myself again when my knees wobble, but I steady myself and head to the house, ready to kick Gage’s ass for belittling me and treating me as though I’m a child. If he wants to play games, I’ll show him exactly how childlike I’m not.

Heading toward the threshold, I silently say the words Sheila gave me, blessing my entrance, even though Gage apparently didn’t seem to need them.

Innocence is a light darkened only by truth.

I’m not exactly sure why those words were chosen, but I feel the protective veil around the house lifting, granting me entrance. Apparently Sheila and this girl both know a powerful charmer, and fortunately they needed chants to gain admittance, since they’re no more a witch than I am.

Entering the house, I’m surprised. It looks like a polished, modern home, whereas the outside looks like a rundown, dilapidated tragedy. Then again, this girl is trying to lay low.

Walking over the tile floor, I proceed with caution, warily looking over everything, but there are too many things here for me to inspect. There are so many dolls, hundreds of them. How am I supposed to speak to her if she’s hiding amongst them?

“Son of a bitch!” Gage growls, his voice resounding down the hall as a litany of other curses fly from his sexy lips. No. Not sexy lips. Just lips, dammit.

Grr. I really hate him right now.

Just as I round the corner to the hallway, I stop. It looks like a hall of mirrors—a never-ending passage way.

“Gage?” I ask cautiously, wondering if it’s an illusion cast by the girl or by the dark user.

He’s suddenly appearing at my side, and I gasp when I see blood drizzling down his forehead, slipping out from under the inky black hair.

“You could have warned me she’s a demon,” he growls, looking around the room, worrying now where she might be.

“Let me the hell in!” Dice demands.

I yell out the passage, and he says it aloud, breaking through the veil as I did. Just as he joins us in the doll-filled room, a red-haired baby doll stands up from a tiny rocking chair.

“What the unholy hell?!” Dice shrieks, jumping into the air high enough to slap his head on the ceiling, and he drops back to the ground with a heavy thud. “Fucking demons,” he hisses, earning a glare from the red-haired doll who then turns her attention to me.

“Where did you learn that passage?” the baby doll asks in a baby’s voice.