Silken Rapture: Princes of the Underground, Book 2 Read online

  “Blaise,” Isabel’s sharp voice pierced his vertigo.

  “Touch the crystal, Isabel. Do as I say,” he yelled as Aubrey rushed him again, his fangs bared. Blaise faded back and Aubrey’s knife skimmed his belly. He utilized the gravity and force inherent to Aubrey’s blow and pushed on the upper portion of the slashing arm, shoving him off balance. He punched the side of his head and Aubrey staggered backward, hissing in fury. Blaise knew he’d only bought some time. What Aubrey had said appeared to be true. He was no longer the stronger of the two. His battle instincts remained intact, but either the wound or his new mortality had weakened him.

  Aubrey leapt, teeth bared, bloody knife plunging. Blaise knew he could not withstand his furious, immortal strength.

  “Blaise!” Isabel screamed.

  He reached for her outstretched hand. Energy poured into his body—earth, to the crystal vein, to Isabel and straight into him. White light filled his consciousness. He saw Aubrey flying toward him, but as if in slow motion. He glanced back. Isabel was there with him, her life force radiating even in the midst of the powerful energy surrounding them, her dark eyes speaking volumes.

  He turned back. Aubrey still was suspended in midattack. He was moving, but slowly…so slowly. Inside the bubble of energy and light, Blaise seemed to move in normal time. When Aubrey neared him, he squeezed Isabel’s hand and reached, closing his other hand around the handle of the silver knife.

  It all happened in one crashing, abrupt moment. He yanked the knife from Aubrey’s hand and slashed upward, planting the knife high up in Aubrey’s ribcage. The white light blinked out. Aubrey crashed to the floor.

  He glanced back at Isabel, anxious to see she was safe. She’d broken contact with the crystal.

  Aubrey wheezed for air. Blaise knelt next to the man who had betrayed him. Dread mixed with his determination. Aubrey had been weakened by the knife embedded in his ribs, but Blaise would have to behead him.

  It was the equivalent of being told he must be his dearest friend’s executioner.

  He unsheathed his heartluster. Dark red blood spilled onto Aubrey’s lips as he met Blaise’s stare.

  “So…you will undo what you did so many years ago when you first made me immortal?” Aubrey asked in a choked voice.

  “You have given me no choice by betraying me,” Blaise replied. “How did you find out what would happen here in the crystal room tonight? How would you know what it would take to vanquish Morshiel?”

  “I was the one who planned Isi’s abduction. I conspired with Morshiel. I have been waiting for a means to undermine your strength for a century or more,” Aubrey muttered. He coughed and more dark blood spilled around his lips. “Finally, the means came to me. Morshiel took me as his lover, even if you would not. I promised him your death. I used drugs and my ascendancy to gain Saint’s secrets from Isi. I used my magic to lower Usan’s protective wards so that the demon—Shirian—could enter. She assisted me, with her demon-magic. She’s an impulsive bitch, and she attacked Isabel without my permission. Still, she didn’t ruin all. It might have worked. It might have,” he gasped.

  Aubrey must have noticed Isabel stir behind him. He smiled at her. “Yes, I planned it all,” Aubrey said, his gray eyes flashing in a mixture of defiance and pride.

  Blaise shook his head slowly.

  “What? Are you disappointed in me, Blaise?” Aubrey asked in a taunting tone. “Do you think I care?”

  “I think you care,” Blaise said quietly.

  Tears filled Aubrey’s light eyes. His jaw trembled. “Did you really believe I would be satisfied with second best? You would not take me as a lover. I wanted to be the one you cherished most, not some ridiculous sidekick. I am too great to share the stage.”

  “I was not shaking my head because of that. I was doing so because you are wrong to think you engineered everything tonight. I planned tonight’s events. I orchestrated my destiny, Aubrey, not you. I understood that Morshiel’s greed to touch Isabel would be his downfall, because it is my strength, and we are opposites. I think Morshiel understood that magic on some level. Even Morshiel comprehended more than you by coming here tonight. You never would believe me when I told you that Morshiel and I were one. He is my dark self, but thanks to the Magian’s magic, I had the chance to gain ascendance over him. I may be mortal now, but I have gained a soul by fusing my dark and light selves.

  Aubrey stared at him in amazement. “Are you that great of a fool?” he whispered in astonishment. “You planned to become mortal?”

  Blaise gripped his heartluster and lifted it toward Aubrey’s neck. “I do not want immortality and power over others. I want to live because I choose to, not because I must. I wanted what I thought I could never have—the ability to love. Isabel gifted me with that. She gave me the impossible. I don’t expect you to understand,” he said as he looked into his one-time companion’s bewildered eyes. “How could you comprehend me, when you so willingly gave away the precious soul you once possessed?”

  “I did not want to die!” Aubrey spat.

  “You would have died clean, your soul intact.”

  “Who cares about my soul when my brain would have been riddled and ruined by the plague,” Aubrey hissed.

  Sadness filled him. “You should know that I did care for you, Aubrey. I’m sorry it wasn’t enough. Goodbye, my friend.”

  He slashed his arm in an arc. The heartluster tore through Aubrey’s neck.

  Slowly, by degrees, the soft sound of crying penetrated his grief and anger. He threw down his heartluster and reached for Isabel. She came down next to him. They knelt, holding each other. Isabel’s tears wet his cheek, and his wound burned all the way to his newly found soul.

  After a while, Blaise helped Isabel rise and dress.

  “I have to leave you, but only for a short time,” Blaise told her.

  “Why?” Isabel asked.

  “Isi told me that the Scourge revenants were weakened when Teslar was vanquished. I need to take the Literati into the tunnels, to finish them off. The underground must be cleansed.”

  “No,” she whispered, looking decimated. “I’m afraid you won’t return.”

  He touched her cheek. “I will return. I have to do this, Isabel. Please understand.”

  She nodded after a moment, but her limbs shook. The direct contact with the crystal must have weakened her. Even though he was the one who was wounded, Isabel staggered next to him as they started to leave the room. He put his arms around her and took her weight.

  Stupid, weak woman, Shirian thought bitterly. She’d watched the scene unfold before her, unable to manifest due to Aubrey’s prohibition against touching the crystal. She could only do so if he commanded it, or if he allowed her to wear the crystal necklace. That damned woman had ripped the crystal from her neck, jerking her out of her physical body.

  Hatred for Isabel Lanscourt poured through her.

  Shirian knelt next to Aubrey. He was the only man who had ever mastered her. She could not help but respect him. His essence had become fused to hers. Now he was gone, and she could not touch the crystal without his permission. Never again would she be clothed in beautiful flesh, never again would she feel delicious sensation.

  She whimpered when she heard Aubrey’s voice in her head.

  “You are not hearing things. It is me. My brain is still alive, though not for long. Touch the crystal, demon. Touch it, and then touch me.”

  Shirian scurried to do his bidding. The crystal’s energy flooded her, congealing her essence into flesh, immediately stealing the air from her newly-formed lungs. She reached and touched Aubrey’s bare hand. Energy poured through her.

  Aubrey’s gray eyes opened wide on his decapitated head.

  Epilogue

  They stood together in St. James Park beneath a cherry tree in full bloom, their arms around one another, watching as people passed.

  “They look so happy, don’t they?” Isabel murmured into Blaise’s chest, referring to a young family who w
alked by—a man, woman and their two school-age children. He grunted in agreement, stroking her shoulder.

  “Next spring, the baby will be with us here in the park.”

  “Yes,” Isabel murmured happily. She brushed her fingers over her belly. At three months pregnant, she had yet to feel much of a bulge, but she sensed the child’s presence. “Usan said the baby couldn’t be any healthier than she is.”

  The sound Blaise made caused her to stare up at his face. A cherry blossom fell on his shoulder, its softness such a contrast to his bold, intimidating male beauty. “You are still angry at Usan?” she whispered. “For using his magic to keep you from telling the other princes about what happened to us…about how you conquered Morshiel?”

  “Yes. About you and the baby, as well.” His gaze ran over her upturned face and his eyes softened. He stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. As always, his touch on her bare skin made her shiver with pleasure.

  They had discovered that what had occurred in the crystal room when Blaise had vanquished both Morshiel and Aubrey was not a singular event. The two of them together—joined—amplified the power of the crystal. When they both touched the crystal, they could absorb a vast amount of energy. Their abilities for telepathy, telekinesis and mind control were enhanced in both of them. Blaise might no longer be immortal, but he was still very powerful. Every day, it seemed, he discovered some new ability, or new strength.

  Other things had changed since that night in the crystal room. Blaise had acquired the ability to sustain himself on food. He no longer needed to drink her blood or utilize the crystal to survive. He no longer could transform into a wolf, but some of his animal nature remained. His fighting skills, acute instincts and sharpened senses were intact.

  Her body still thrilled to his touch and the sensation of his teeth on her skin. Thankfully, those unique abilities lingered.

  But so did the pain from the wound on his chest. He no longer possessed the superhuman ability to heal. Isabel knew that the twinges of pain he still felt were constant reminders of Aubrey’s betrayal. He did not speak of Aubrey often, but every once in a while, she would see the sadness in his eyes, the anger, the bewilderment. The fact that Aubrey’s body inexplicably disappeared from the crystal room on that night only seemed to add to his unrest. Isabel suspected it made it even more difficult for him to come to terms with Aubrey’s betrayal.

  She placed her palm gently over the scar on his chest now, offering him silent comfort.

  “You must understand,” he continued after a moment. “The other princes are like brothers to me. I want to strategize with them, share my knowledge—yes—and I’m frustrated that I can’t, but it’s more than that. I want to be able to tell them that I’m happy…that it’s possible for creatures such as us to find joy. We had all been so…dead.”

  Tears burned in her eyes as she looked up at him. She smiled. “Are you sure you don’t regret giving up your immortality? Even a little?”

  “Regret loving you? Regret the miracle of what has happened between us?” he murmured, turning her in his arms until his groin rested against her belly. “There’s isn’t even a tiny shred of regret. I’m only thankful.”

  “You deserve to be happy,” she whispered. She sensed something in him, though, even if it wasn’t regret. “What is it, Blaise? Why are you uneasy? Are you thinking of Aubrey?”

  He shrugged and leaned down to kiss her on the mouth. “No, it’s not that. It’s just…do you ever wonder? What the Magian plan to do with us when all their experimenting is done?”

  A chill went through her. She shivered and Blaise rubbed her back, sharing his heat with her.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” he said gruffly, landing a kiss on her temple. “Besides, I am aging like any human now. You and I will be old and gray by the time some of my brothers find their soul.”

  “Neither Saint nor you believe that. Both of you think a chain of events has started that can’t be stopped. Your brothers may undergo their transformation very soon. Besides, I have told you what knowledge I’ve gained in touching the crystal during these past months. That crystal, and its sudden appearance, were both orchestrated by the Magian. Christina has told us that she feels the same is true of the crystal chamber they found in underground Chicago. The Magian Council is planning events behind the curtains of the stage of our lives, Blaise. It’s best we face that.”

  She could tell by his expression he read her greatest worry at that moment. “It would take a greater force of nature than even Usan and the Magian Council to ever take me away from you and our child, Isabel. Not even the Empress herself could succeed in separating us.”

  “I dare her to try it,” Isabel shot back.

  His dark brows arched in amusement. She ran her fingers over his lips. Every time she saw it in these past months, Blaise’s smile was a fresh miracle to her. Sunlight filtered through the cherry blossoms and danced on his gleaming black hair and face.

  “What?” he asked, his grin widening.

  “When I first saw you, on the stairs in Sanctuary,” she murmured, realizing she’d been staring at him fixedly, “I remember thinking that it would be miraculous to see what sunlight did to your soul. It is a miracle. A more amazing one than I ever imagined.”

  His expression sobered. She went up on her toes to meet his kiss.

  The future would come, and they would face it. They would fight for their new, cherished life together. All they could do was live day by day, moment by moment, grateful for each other, and thankful for their soul-filled existence.

  About the Author

  Beth Kery loves romance, and the more emotionally laden and sexy the romance the better. She is a national bestselling author of over thirty books and short stories. She also writes under the pen name Bethany Kane. Find out more about Beth and her books at www.bethkery.com, or follow her on Twitter, www.twitter.com/bethkery or Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1015304659. She loves to hear from readers at [email protected]

  Look for these titles by Beth Kery

  Now Available:

  Take a Stranger No More

  Holiday Bound

  Velvet Cataclysm

  Princes of the Underground

  Velvet Cataclysm

  Silken Rapture

  In his battle to resist, he found the impossible. His soul.

  Velvet Cataclysm

  © 2010 Beth Kery

  Christina Astor’s telepathic ability is an asset in her job as a psychiatric social worker. What’s driving her crazy, though, is her elusive, gorgeous landlord. She senses that Saint Sevliss wants her with an all-consuming hunger that’s somehow…different. Just how different becomes all too clear when his dangerous world collides with hers.

  For centuries, Saint’s kind have been called vampire and werewolf. Even soulless. But their true nature remains a mystery. Bound by a magical mandate to control his bloodthirsty clone, Teslar, at all costs, Saint will do anything to keep Christina away. She infuses his gray universe with life and color, but his world—and his need—would destroy her.

  When an attack reveals the true power of Christina’s gift, one thing is certain—Teslar won’t rest in his underground labyrinth until he possesses her, body and soul…

  Warning: This book contains some violence, smoking hot, explicit scenes and anal sex. In addition, there is a brief M/M sexual interaction and a ménage a trois.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Velvet Cataclysm:

  “You’ve got a lot of nerve, you know that?” She slammed the door shut and swept across the room like a wildfire on the rampage. “It’s you who put this fixed idea in Aidan’s head that we shouldn’t move away from Whitby. Didn’t I tell you to stay away from him?”

  “You’re wrong. No intervention was required on my part. Aidan is very upset about the idea of leaving Whitby. It’s his home.”

  “Wrong. Whitby Manor is your home,” she corrected, pointing accusingly.

  She stepp
ed back when he stood abruptly, quick as a snake at the strike.

  “It’s my home because you’re there,” he growled.

  Christina was set off-balance by his unexpected revelation accompanied by a focused explosion of feeling. The vivid memory of the gazebo made her recover. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you brought your girlfriends to what should have been our first date.”

  She’d never seen Saint show an emotion as mundane as incredulity until now.

  “First date? You saw what I am! Saw it with your own eyes, and yet the only thing you consider is that I was unfaithful to your infantile fantasies?”

  She snarled and picked up a heavy marble paperweight from her desk, fully prepared to hurl it at Saint’s stunned expression of disbelief. A frustrated cry left her lips when he was suddenly beside her, restraining her wrists. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed her back into his chest.

  “Calm down.”

  For a few seconds, she was dazed by his resonant, deep voice and the sensation of his body pressed against her. She twisted furiously in his hold, but her body slowly sagged. When she realized she was following Saint’s order without conscious thought, her fury erupted.

  “God, I hate you! How could you have done that to me?”

  “I am what I am. If I could change my nature, I would in a second. You gave me no choice but to reveal to you the truth about why your dreams are merely that—the fantasies of a child.”