Slayers Give Happy Endings Read online

  I kicked, flailed, struggled to break free, a scream ripping my throat raw.

  Paul stood from his seat, his face the only one whole, the only one smiling, while Sawyer dragged me toward him.

  Chapter Five

  A sting in my arm, and then there was nothing but floating. And dreams. And the sound of peeing...

  I immediately felt my crotch area to see if I’d wet myself. Nope. But the sound didn’t stop. Had I woken up inside a toilet? I’d done that once when I was fourteen. Mom had a bottle of wine someone had given her as a gift that she’d apparently forgotten about, so I did her a favor and drank the whole bottle one night after patrol. The next morning, Mom found me asleep with my head inside the toilet. Since then, I hated everything that had to do with grapes. I should’ve left that wine for her. I should’ve done a lot of things.

  Now, I cracked my eyes open. They felt scratchy and raw, like I’d spent much too long swimming to the surface. Of consciousness, I supposed.

  I lay among soft sheets pulled up to my neck, but I wasn’t in the guestroom. I was in the woodshed, locked up tight between four walls that streamed holy water. Imprisoned in the prison I’d helped create. A prickle of fear dragged down my back. Fear of myself. For myself. I really doubted this was a good sign.

  The wall separating the two cells had been knocked down to make one big cell, but this was definitely the same woodshed. Through my glass door, I recognized the wooden door that led outside with the knotted crossbeams in it. And between that door and me, I recognized the three vampires and one dog sleeping on the hard floor.

  My heart clenched painfully, almost hard enough to start beating again. They’d sacrificed comfort to be near me because I’d probably scared the shit out of them. Damn me and my mental state. I remembered everything, but if I’d been put in the woodshed, then none of what I remembered was accurate. Would I even know when I was fighting the real Paul?

  Sawyer blinked his eyes open and saw me staring like a creeper. Like a flaked-out creeper. He stood with a hesitant smile, and I hated that I’d put it there. I wanted to kiss it off of his face, so I stood, too, a watery pane of glass the only thing separating us. The dark sun and moon ink on his bare chest stood out starkly on his golden skin as he stepped closer under the dim overhead light. When he unlatched the see-through door and stepped inside, careful of the holy water, I flung myself at him, seeking his comfort now more than ever. He crushed me to him, and my feet left the ground with the force of his hug.

  “I’m sorry,” I sobbed into his shoulder. It turned out I could cry, even as a vampire.

  “Don’t be.”

  “I don’t even know what happened. I wrote that...those words on the wall at the bottom of the trapdoor. Why the hell would I do that?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not your fault.” He glided his fingers through my loose curls, his touch like a soothing balm.

  “What about Detective Appelt? Is he okay?” I asked. “I think I thought he was Paul?”

  He nodded and sighed. “He was shaken up. It ripped him apart inside to see you like that. It did to all of us. We had to put you somewhere where you wouldn’t hurt yourself, or anyone else.”

  “I know.”

  “Slayer.” A rough voice came from behind Sawyer, who put me down so I could go to my other vamps.

  Jacek, wearing nothing but his black athletic pants, scooped me up first, pressing a long kiss to my temple, and then Eddie clung to my whole being with the power of his hug. When I stepped back from them, both of their shoulders wet with my tears, my chest felt like bursting with how much I loved them, how much they meant to me for putting up with all my shit. They never flinched away from any of it when most guys I used to know would’ve said to hell with me within seconds of me opening my mouth.

  I knelt to give Cleo a hug, too, who licked the tears from my face, and then I stood. “Well, I think that we can all agree that The Fuckening going on up in my mashed potato head has reached oh-shit levels.”

  Eddie laughed, but it sounded pained. “You have a way with words, Sunshine.”

  I winked. “It’s because I’m a big fan of books and libraries.”

  “Be still my heart,” he said, smiling.

  Jacek shook his head down at the floor of the woodshed. “First smiling and now he’s cracking jokes. Slayer, what have you done to this man?”

  “She loves me,” Eddie said simply.

  Hearing him say the absolute truth knotted my throat with emotion, and I was so glad he knew it. “You bet your sweet ass I do. All three of you. I wouldn’t be standing here in the middle of a holy-watered woodshed if I didn’t. And it’s because I love you that I’m sure you’ll fill me in on every detail I missed since I’ve been here.”

  “It’s October eighth, so you’ve just been out a few days,” Sawyer said. “I dosed you pretty good in the kitchen, and I’m sorry for that.”

  I reached out and touched his arm. “Don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

  “We have the corpse flower seeds,” Eddie said, pushing back his blond hair. “It appears as though the conditions you described at the bottom of the trapdoor would be ideal for a corpse flower. They bloom tall and almost at once with the force of the full moon.”

  Jacek nodded. “We just need to know if it would be better to wait until after you kill Paul to take your slayer power out, or take you to the corpse flowers at the police station basement and do it now. So, I’d like to test your speed and strength by having you try to kick my ass.”

  I quirked an eyebrow, ready to get physical with him any day of the week. “When?”

  “Now, if you think you can take me.”

  “I’ll bring my boxing gloves.”

  “Oh, kinky.” He mock-shivered, his wide grin lighting my soul on fire, even though it was pinched at the corners. “I’ll bring the hard...everything.”

  Sawyer frowned at him. “Make sure to actually do some training between all of your sexual euphemisms. We need to know the best course of action for Belle right away.”

  “On it, boss.” Jacek looked to me and held out his hand.

  “On me, you mean.” I took his hand and let him lead me out of the cell and out of the woodshed.

  Outside, the air felt cold and oily against my skin, the night and everything else as black as I’d ever seen it. It looked like a nightmare, even in the backyard of my oasis, but I smiled through it anyway. With Jacek’s hand in mine, the horrors didn’t seem so frightening. They seemed farther away, a mountain to scale one step at a time. And I was, mashed potato brain and all. If I could just stick it together with some gravy or something, I’d be fine. It’d be like Thanksgiving in my head.

  Inside the house, I dug my boxing gloves out of my duffel bag by the door while Jacek moved the living room furniture out of the way and rolled out the blue mats.

  “Jacek?”

  “Yes?”

  “No stakes today, okay? I’m not even going to wear one in my hair because I don’t want to stake you like I did Eddie or like I almost did to Detective Appelt.”

  “No stakes,” he agreed. “We can bring out any other equipment you want.”

  I nodded. “And if you think I need to keep my slayer power until the thirty-first, then...I would like to sleep in the woodshed from now on.”

  He stopped what he was doing and stared at me. “Obviously, we would never force you, but we won’t help Paul beat you either. If you feel safer there—”

  “You three are safer if I’m out there. And if I do something stupid while we’re training, promise me you’ll put me back out there. I feel fine now, but...as you’ve seen, that can change pretty quickly.”

  “I promise,” he said softly. He crossed toward me and grazed his fingertips up my jaw, catching on a strand of hair, and tucked it behind my ear. “It’s only temporary, Slayer. Your vampire powers may be all you need to beat Paul, and then we can get your slayer power out tonight.”

  I really doubted it. Not when the slayer po
wer itself belonged to Paul. I would need it to help beat him. I was sure of it, but I was unsure if I could make it until the thirty-first’s full moon to do it, especially if I had gaping holes in my memory and was hallucinating.

  Melting myself into Jacek’s arms, I closed my eyes and puckered up. “Kiss me before I knock you on your ass.”

  Chuckling, he did, his tongue and lips the perfect distraction. His kisses were deep and rough, growing more urgent by the second. I moaned into his mouth while I speared my fingers through his short dark hair, and he answered with a low growl that rumbled straight down to my pussy.

  Screw testing me. I wanted to skip straight to the good stuff. And I would have, too, if it weren’t for his pesky reflexes. His fingers trailing down my arm tightened around my wrist, and then he angled his arm across the front of my body and pushed. It threw me off balance, even more so when he kicked his legs right behind my stumbling ones. I went down, smacking the mat hard.

  “Cheater,” I said, smiling up at him.

  “Give it right back to me, as hard as you can. I dare you.” He licked his lips, and a naughty gleam sparked in his amber eyes. “If you knock me down and make me stay down, you win.”

  “But you’re so pretty, though.” I sprang into a crouch in front of him, and then slid up the length of his body, slowly, my hands exploring the hard cock pressed against his athletic pants on the way, and then with my lips up his perfectly sculpted abs.

  He watched me climb him like a pole, his eyes flaming hunger. “I can think of someone prettier.”

  “Well, if you say so, but I’m not so sure how Sawyer will react to being called pretty.” I snaked my right leg around the back of his, and using the power of my hips, I knocked into his side with the intent to trip him.

  Oh, but not to fling him into the television. Damn it! Glass and plastic exploded across the room.

  “Jacek!” I shouted and started to run toward him.

  Still sprawled in the TV’s remains, he shot out a leg before I could get to him. I leaped up to avoid it and landed on my tiptoes on the coffee table where he immediately took a swipe at my ankles. I dodged that with a little jump that reminded me of a dainty ballerina, which I most certainly wasn’t.

  Time to play dirty.

  He sprang to his feet, but I was already flashing across the living room toward one of Cleo’s rubber balls. I threw it toward Jacek but far enough out of reach so he couldn’t catch it. Once again, it blew a hole right through the wall.

  Jacek whipped his head toward the jagged hole. “We’re playing fetch now?” When he looked back at me, I stood right in front of him, my boxing gloves already fastened to my fists.

  I sucker-punched him in the abs, really putting my whole strength into it, but it probably felt like a tickle to him.

  His mouth made a surprised O, and then it slid into a grimace. “Ow.”

  I reeled back, not at all expecting that. Oh shit. I dropped my gaze to where I’d punched him, and a bright red mark had bloomed across his bare skin. “Oh god, Jacek, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think I hit you that hard. Did I punch your organs into your spine?”

  He nodded. “They bounced,” he croaked.

  “Shitshitshit. What can I do?

  He leaned his forehead against mine as if I were the only thing keeping him upright. “Duck.”

  “Duck?”

  “Duck.” He flew his arms out to the sides as if to grab me, his own hands inside boxing gloves he must’ve pulled out of nowhere.

  I ducked. “Dude!”

  He erupted into laughter as he did a Rocky-style victory lap around the smashed-up living room. The sound addicted me, and it was exactly what I needed to hear, but I was pretty sure I’d really hurt him. I dropped the boxing gloves and replaced them with a couch cushion. It was heavier than it looked, but I easily chucked it across the room when Jacek’s back was turned. He cried out in surprise as it completely leveled him. Like, completely smashed him into the wall and then knocked him flat.

  “Fffffuck.” I stared, open-mouthed, and then did a running leap until I straddled him.

  He lay there stunned, staring up at the ceiling. “Defeated by a cushion. Let’s not tell anyone.”

  “Are you all right? I don’t know my own strength. We’re done. I took you down, and now we’re done. No more, all right?”

  “Guess how many of my students have taken me down since I started teaching?” he asked.

  “How many?”

  His hand slid down the inside of my yoga pants, and then lower still, until his fingertips brushed my already slick folds. With his fiery eyes on me, he curled a single finger up inside me. “Just one.”

  I pressed against his palm, needing to feel more of him, all of him, as his rigid cock rubbed underneath my inner thigh. “I hurt you.”

  “Because you’re the vampire slayer.” He groaned as he grinded his hips against mine. “You hurt me in ways I like to be hurt.”

  I ran my palms over his chest while I fucked his finger like a dick. “Like with boxing gloves and couch cushions?”

  “And a constant, painful need to be inside of you.” He lifted up and covered my mouth with his. His tongue and lips ravaged mine and sharpened my desire to a throbbing ache. He pulled out his finger to yank down both our pants, both of our hips still riding each other’s the whole time.

  I loved how we couldn’t wait, how we’d fuck each other with our clothes on until we remembered we liked them off better. Yet another reminder to never wear them in the first place.

  He gripped my ass and slid me down his shaft even though my underwear was only shoved halfway down my hips. The fabric bunched up as I thrust up and down and rubbed quite nicely against my swollen clit. One leg hole had wrapped itself around Jacek’s cock so that it stroked him each time I pumped into him. Or him into me. We writhed together. Then came together.

  I bit down into his shoulder, my orgasm still pulsing through me, but didn’t slow my pace. Neither did he. As soon as he licked his bite on my neck clean, he rolled me onto my back and fucked me until I came again. His eyes flashed red, and he groaned loudly into my kiss. He sank his fangs into the other side of my neck while I drank from his, and we rode each through the aftershocks of our releases until we lay there grinning, still joined.

  A bit later, Sawyer and Eddie walked in the front door, which was now fixed, and found Jacek still sprawled on top of me.

  Eddie gazed around the wrecked living room. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”

  Sawyer crossed his massive arms over his chest and frowned, surveying the damage.

  Cleo trotted in from outside and had almost the same disapproving expression on her furry face.

  Once Jacek rolled off of me, I stood. “I call it ‘fae vampire slayer pirate who doesn’t know her own strength’ chic. I’m pretty doubtful it will catch on. I promise I’ll clean it up though.”

  “So that’s the verdict, then?” Sawyer asked. “I take it you won, Belle, as both a vampire and slayer?”

  “That she did.” Jacek, still on the floor, held to his gut where I’d punched him, but when he caught me looking, he gave me two thumbs-up.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, hating myself.

  He shook his head. “Never be sorry. You need that to beat Paul.”

  Still. Jacek was my favorite Jacek, and he’d been hurt enough in his past. “So, it looks like I’ll be keeping my slayer power until October thirty-first, and then I’ll hand it off to a corpse flower to deal with.”

  Sawyer nodded. “We’ll work out the details. At least we already know it works and that it won’t knock the universe into chaos by taking your power.”

  “I’ll just have to make sure I don’t die until then so another slayer won’t have to deal with all this shit. And I need to make sure my brain holds out until then.” I posted my hands on my hips and shook my head at all the damage, both inside and out. “After I patrol, looks like I’ll be spending some quality time in the woodshed. Who’s wit
h me?”

  All hands raised into the air, just as I knew they would. But instead of feeling relieved, I felt nothing but terror for what the rest of the month might bring.

  Chapter Six

  Two days until my birthday. We had everything planned out, every detail, right down to the food and drinks I’d bring. No, I wasn’t talking birthday celebrations here, people. I would be carrying groceries to my battle with Paul. A ton of lime juice to kill the maggots—thanks, Google!—extra water to help grow the corpse flower seeds, and about twenty bags of the seeds themselves. With all my plant-growing needs accounted for, you’d think I’d feel ready, primed for action, queued up for a ton of god-killing.

  But the truth was I hung on to sanity by my fingernails. The static sound drilled a constant hole in my head so loud that I sometimes literally couldn’t hear myself or my vamps speak. All I said anymore was “Huh?” and “Pass the blood.” My memory didn’t work for shit, and on the few occasions I allowed myself into the house, I was always finding myself in a room with no idea why I was there or how I’d gotten there in the first place. Mom had often joked about that kind of thing, especially since she’d had her fair share of brain farts. We all did. Wait until you get old like me, Mom had said. It turned out I didn’t have to.

  According to the Senate’s book written about Roseff, he’d gone through much the same thing. He’d looked into the lake, learned the truth about Paul, and lost his damn mind on his birthday. After that, he’d resorted to torturing Jacek to figure out how to turn a slayer into a vampire and therefore survive Paul. On the days leading up to his birthday, he had huge gaps in his memory and tried to hurt himself. The book even detailed some notes he’d made.

  The longer the slayer stays alive, the more magic the dark unknown is able to draw up from the ground, from his dimension, for it is a slow process. The dimension’s magic is almost as powerful as the slayer’s power itself.