Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5)

She’s so fucking strong that it’s almost unbelievable, yet far too young and inept to properly harness her power. Not to mention, a little too sheltered by her hovering family.

The second she reaches me, her nails dig into my sides, and I wince, growling down at her as she grins up at me. She never remembers these moments. Never knows how hard she fights to take something I won’t let her have.

She never remembers a damn thing once her mind is this lost.

Thank bloody hell for that.

My hand slides into her hair, jerking her head back as she laughs in an echoing tone like she’s delighted. One of her hands releases my side, and starts to slink down to my jeans.

This, however, is not really Ella.

This is just her darkest pieces shining brighter than her.

“Sorry, Princess,” I say with my own dark grin as her laughter stops abruptly and her eyes narrow. “But I can’t give you what you really want. At least not today.”

When she shoves me hard against a tree, I blur back to her, grabbing her at the waist. Her eyes heat, but I spin, sucking us through the planes just as the smell of the dark user taints my senses, proving he and the visionless visionary are back.

“Ella!” is all I hear them shout as we vanish completely from sight.

The second we’re inside my homemade prison plane full of the psychedelic mindfuckery patterns and swirling illusions of color, Ella stumbles to her knees, collapsing as she gets nauseous.

I spend the next thirty or so minutes in my usual corner, watching her as she reaches for things that aren’t really there, and falls over and over in her attempt to stand on a ground she probably assumes is moving, though it’s actually not.

The second I see her eyes sober and widen, I wave my hand and she’s gone from sight, landing her right in her very own bed, if my aim isn’t off.

Then I disappear from the plane as well, returning back to the inside of my cabin to go on with my day like nothing happened. I’ve developed an effective system for dealing with the dark princess, even though it’s certainly not helping any with her control.

Ignoring the fever in my veins and the beast clawing at me from the inside in protest of once again denying the pain-in-my-ass female, I move back to my charts, averting Kya’s undisguised judgmental eyes.

“One day, you’re going to explain to me the reason why you always help her, then claim to have zero interest in whether or not she lives or dies,” she finally says, though the words are spoken quietly, as though that makes it less of an offense.

My eyes skim over my journal pages, reminding myself of the plan I spent centuries building, because I need a reminder from time to time.

“One day, you’ll realize you’re wasting your time assuming I do give a damn,” I state with a fuck-you grin that has her tensing. “And maybe when that day comes, you’ll remember what is actually important.”

As I turn away from her, I close my eyes, seeing Ella as she stares up at the ceiling of her room, panting heavily as she continues to come down from her high. She sits up abruptly, as though a thought has occurred to her, and I watch—like a sick addict in need of a constant fix.

Suddenly she’s in a forest not too far from where I found her, and I silently curse, wondering if she’s going after yet another fight. Instead, she goes to a random basket packed with food and blood, retrieving it from the ground.

When she disappears from sight, it all goes blank in my mind, and I tilt my head. What the actual fuck? Why can’t I see her anymore?

Chapter 2

ELLA

Still dizzy and disoriented, unsure how I got from the grove of harbingers to lying on my bed, I move silently down the long tunnel as I materialize inside them.

This is where I was trying to go when the harbingers attacked Kimber and Gage. As always, I was desperate to help. And as always, I was suddenly lost to the twisted place in my mind that I’ve grown overly attached to. For some reason, getting lost is the only time I feel…free.

At least until I blank out and lose total control. But that five minutes of total control, uninhibited abandon, and ultimate power keeps pushing me to the brink, desperate to chase that feeling again.

I’m a monster.

If I don’t figure out how to stop the blacking-out part, I’m eventually going to stay a monster and my family…I don’t even want to think about what I might do to them on accident.

Everything is already a mess between our group. We once shared everything, or so I thought. Turns out, we’re all a complicated block of secrets and lies, and my anchor is slowly eroding, taking me into the darkness quicker each time I unleash my power.

I’ve done many things, but until now, I’ve never betrayed everyone I love by keeping a secret. But as I’ve learned, none of them have a problem keeping secrets from me.