As I continue to serve customers, I can’t wipe the smile from my face. I thought it was already so sweet of Jartre to send me flowers, but to realise how much thought and meaning went into choosing them... It just makes me love them even more. I’m feeling like I’m on cloud nine, but that feeling vanishes faster than a married man's wedding ring at a brothel when I look up and see Mitchell in the crowd, headed my way. “Oh, what in gay hell,” I say in exasperation. “Hey, this place isn’t gay hell, it’s gay heaven,” Cassandra corrects me. “It was, until Rosemary’s Baby walked in,” I say, jutting my head towards Mitchell. Cassandra looks over, her amber eyes hardening as she spots Mitchell. “Want me to put dirty dishwater in his drink?” I deliberate on that for a second. “Very tempting. I might take you up on that.” “I got you, girl,” she says with a wink just as Mitchell walks up to the bar. “Hey Gabbie,” he says with a warm smile. My stomach churns uncomfortably but I manage to c
I race home as fast as I can and slam the front door shut when I enter my loft. I toss my things on the kitchen counter and get ready to unleash hell. “JARTRE!” I scream at the top of my lungs. Not even a full second passes before Jartre is standing before me in the living room in all his 7’9” glory. That electric energy fills the room, blanketing me with comfort, but I don’t let it distract me. He graces me with a warm smile, but it quickly vanishes when he sees the fury I am directing at him. “What the fuck have you done?” I snap, breathing heavily. His face becomes blank like a stone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Cut the crap, Jartre. I may be human, but I am not a fool. Don’t you dare treat me like one. What the fuck did you do to Mitchell?” I question sternly. His nostrils flare and his silver eyes shine brightly, but I refuse to back down. “I did what was necessary,” he says apathetically. “Necessary?! Have you lost your fucking mind?! In no universe is thi
Bolts of lightning strike through the celestial sky of my home realm as I continue to let out all my rage. Clouds of colour that put the Aurora Borealis to shame, roll in in greater numbers as each electric-charged bolt hits the vast slick, rainbow ocean below. Every muscle in my body is clenched with tension, my teeth grinding against each other on the brink of shattering as Gabriella’s minty eyes plague my mind once again. The hurt, the disgust… they will stay with me for all eternity. How could she stand there fighting to save someone who had betrayed her so deeply? Not to mention humans are Petri dishes for viruses and sexually transmitted diseases. That little parasite could have so easily infected her without a fucking care, leaving her dead or dying. I could heal her, of course, but that’s not the fucking point! How can she defend someone so heinous?! But to say I assaulted her or attempted to… those words will haunt me greater than any demon that lives in the recesses of my m
Time felt like it had stopped. I spent who knows how long, wandering the streets of LA before ending up at Venice Beach. The realisation of how much time I’d spent sitting on the sand only hits me when I see the sun begin to rise along the horizon. Bright fire-coloured rays beam across the sky turning its midnight blue into clear baby blue with not a cloud to be seen. It’s beautiful and mesmerising and yet doesn’t remotely distract me from what I’m going through. Hours of fresh air and ocean breeze, yet I still feel no better. I feel hollow from the way Jartre left, and I feel enraged that he could do something so manipulative and controlling, but then again, I barely know the man. Maybe this is normal behaviour for him, and if it is, then I am extremely worried. Were Derrick and Wyatt right? Have I left one abusive relationship for a much worse one? My gut tells me that Jartre isn’t a bad person and that there is more to this, but that doesn’t make any of this okay. As surfers star
I walk around to the other side of my kitchen counter and pull up a stool as I take a long sip of wine, then let out a long, deep exhale. “So, why does my animai feel he has a right to erase my ex like he’s a mistake on a math test?” “Did you know you are only Jartre’s second relationship?” they ask, placing a deep dish in the oven. I pause with my glass to my lips. “Come again.” They wash their hands and turn around, leaning back against the opposite counter. “The last and only other time Jartre was in love was thirty-thousand years ago.” I skull down half my glass of wine in shock and place the glass down, staring at Ezillus in disbelief. “How is that even possible?! How does someone live for so long and have no other relationships?!” I shriek. “Finding someone to fuck is one thing, but how many would so easily accept what we are? Who could comprehend a relationship with an immortal cosmic being?” I frown thinking that over. “I guess you have a point. So, who was the last perso
“When Jartre discovered Apaki, he blacked out. It was like his mind couldn’t process the pain, so it shut down. He flew into a rage unlike anything anyone had ever seen. It was as though all the hurt, heartbreak and betrayal turned into pure malice and consumed him. In that moment, he placed a curse on Oshmin, one that still continues to this day,” they say carefully. “Gods can curse people? Even other Gods?” I question as shock takes over my mind. Just when I think I’ve made it past the bottom of the supernatural iceberg, it turns out it’s bigger than I anticipated. I’m like the fucking Titanic. “That they can. Jartre placed a blood curse on Oshmin, turning him into the first sanguidae.” “Sanguidae?” I question, then slowly realise what that name translates to. “Holy shit, he turned a God into a fucking vampire?!” They nod gravely. “It was not Jartre’s intention, but the blood curse is just that. The moment the curse took hold, Oshmin flew into a blood craze, his entire being cra
Before I know it, two warm, dark espresso hands are cupping my face as bright liquid silver eyes stare at me with concern. Their voice slowly begins to filter back into my ears and soon I can make out what they’re saying. “Gabriella, just breathe. No one is going to kill Jartre, I promise you,” they say calmly. “You don’t know that,” I whisper as I feel tears pool in my eyes. I just learned my boyfriend and soulmate, killed his ex, cursed her lover, nearly destroyed the world, made a God, caused a vampire and demon plague and still after all that, all I can feel is pain at the thought of losing him. So much so I can barely breathe. How fucking sick and twisted is that? Ezillus reaches past me and ends up placing my wine glass to my lips and helping me sip, “There you go. Drink your juice, Shelby,” they coo in a southern drawl. I spit the wine back into the glass as I burst into a fit of laughter. I look up at Ezillus through teary eyes as they smile back down at me. I hunch forwa
How I despise this realm. Yes, this is where I was born – if that’s even the right word – but it’s not home. Being here only reminds me of the past, so I avoid returning and find spending my time on Earth far more soothing. The only reason I’m here now is that I’m struggling to quell my anger, and I already know the damage I did to Earth the last time I couldn’t control myself, and I don’t wish for that to happen again. This entire realm is made of pure magic, so it’s less susceptible to my destructive forces. I have places I reside, but none that I’ve ever truly called home. The first time I felt I’d found my home was when I first laid eyes on Gabriella. My essram felt at peace the moment I held her in my arms, and I feel at home each time I’m with her. Being lightyears away from her feels like torture. I ache to be at her side, but would she even want me? After the way she looked at me, would she ever welcome me back? Would she ever let me hold her in my arms again? To breathe in
I walk down the front steps of the beach house, making my way across the sand and over to Jartre who continues to stare out at the horizon. I sense his anguish and guilt and if our bond were complete I’d probably be crushed by their weight. That’s the thing most people don’t realize about Jartre. Jartre feels everything far more intensely than others. His own emotions are a destructive force to himself and those around him. His love for Apaki nearly destroyed the world and then his love for me nearly did the same thing, only on a much larger scale. His guilt, disgust and shame birthed a new God and that has come with its own set of problems. I can’t blame Jartre for wanting to run and hide from his feelings all these years because it seems whenever he lets them out, someone gets hurt.“Are you going to keep standing there watching me?” he utters, not sparing me a glance.“I didn’t want to disturb you. Do you want to talk?” I gently ask.“I’m sure you already know what happened, so wha
I appear in a wide open, sparse living room surrounded by walls of stone and endless glass windows that look out onto an incredible mountainside from atop a hill with trees as far as the eye can see. The sound of the rain echoes around this somewhat hollow domain, each drop beating down on the glass ceiling and cascading down like a waterfall all around me.“What do you want, Jartre?”I look over to see Oshmin sitting at an oversized dining table, his head buried in his hands while flecks of golden glitter in his azure hair manage to twinkle in the light of such an overcast day. A simple whiff is enough to tell me Yildiz is here too, but as I pay closer attention I can feel her energy emanating from somewhere upstairs.“I’m sure you would love more than anything to throw me out, and that would be more than fair, but I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to speak,” I say with all the confidence I can muster. I feel like a human child confronting their disappointed parent. It feels revolti
Instant relief washes over me when Gabriella finally appears. She crawls onto the bed, collapsing and snuggling up to me, wrapping her arms tight around my body and nuzzling against my chest, setting my body ablaze. I put the TV on mute, wrap my arms around her and plant a tender kiss on the top of her head.“How did it go?”“I knew it would be emotional but…that was even harder than I anticipated,” she exhales.I gently comb my fingers through her green locks as I tenderly run my fingers up and down her arm, her scent swirling around the room putting me at peace. “Did Fretez put up a fight?”She shakes her head, “No, she was very sympathetic and understood why I wanted to do this and said that ultimately it’s my decision and she no longer has a say on the matter. That alone is crazy to me. I mean… having the power to move the spirits of the dead from one plane of existence to another…it’s insane to think that’s something I can do now.”“And how did the young Alpha handle it?”“I thin
The tender moment is interrupted by the suite's buzzer, so I reluctantly free my hand from the mighty grip of my daughter and answer the door. I stand there, mouth agape, looking up at the 7’7” Goddess standing at the threshold of my suite. Dark, yet radiant forest green hair frames her face in long natural waves while her bright, silver eyes look down at me with apprehension.'What would a Goddess have to be apprehensive about?' Zara utters in astonishment, echoing my own thoughts.'Beats me, but a better question would be: why in the hell is a Goddess at my front door?''That is definitely the superior question,' Zara nods in agreement. 'What kind of God rings the doorbell?' Zara appears more lively than she has in weeks. I’m not the only one who lost both her parents. Just like me, the only things keeping her going are Ace and their pup.“I’m so sorry for just showing up like this. It’s Amelia, right?” she says hopefully. “Sorry, I mean, Alpha Amelia,” she quickly corrects herself.
As I look down into the bassinet, listening to the steady thumps of my precious baby girl, I lose count of how many emotions are running through me. My mum tried to brace me for how overwhelming having a baby is. She warned me that from one moment to the next I won’t know whether I want to laugh, scream or cry and she was right, but I still wasn’t prepared. However, the one thing she didn’t prepare me for was how to do this without her.Zara whimpers quietly in my mind as I look over at the framed picture by the television of my mum holding my daughter the day she was born, and I can feel the tears filling my eyes. She tried so hard to make herself look healthy and strong for her granddaughter that day. It’s such a beautiful, bittersweet photo. My mum’s radiant red hair almost cocooning my daughter, her thick black tufts a stark contrast against my mum’s red. Mum was so happy to meet her granddaughter and even though my daughter was fresh out of the womb, it’s like she knew what my mu
I place a glamour over my eyes just as Jartre taught me, allowing people to see my eyes as they once were and not as they are now. I figure this will make it a little easier to take in my new appearance. I wait until Wyatt steps out, then let myself into Derrick’s hospital room. I walk over to the bed and look down at my best friend, his hair damp with sweat and his face pale. He doesn’t deserve this, and I feel like a bad friend for not being there more for him lately because of all this supernatural drama.I quietly pull up a chair and sit down, reaching out and holding his hand between mine. Derrick slowly opens his eyes and looks over at me, first his brows furrow in confusion, but soon his eyes widen in disbelief as he looks me over.“Ella?”“Hey, you,” I say softly.“What…Is that a wig?” he asks in confusion.“Uh no.” I grab a strand of hair between my fingers and look down at it scornfully. “This is my real hair.”“You hate the colour green.”“Oh, I still hate the colour green,
“According to sources, the FBI is working with local law enforcement throughout the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho to get to the bottom of this sudden wave of unexplained disappearances. Conspiracy theorists are going wild on public forums suspecting everything from alien abductions to human trafficking. As for the real cause behind these disappearances, authorities still have no leads on the matter.”I take in a deep breath, guilt strangling me as the news shows more faces of people who have been reported missing since the eyti were released. I allowed this to happen. Those people aren’t missing. They’ve been pulled into an unfathomable dark abyss, infected by the eyti set free from their prison and fuelled by the malice that lives within every human.The TV turns off and I look over to see Jartre getting up from the couch and making his way out to the patio, anger and frustration radiating off him in waves, rippling against the radiating pure white of his essram, now spotted
Whoever said exposure therapy was ideal for curing people of their fears was a sadistic fucking cunt.From the moment I met Gabriella, my greatest fear was that I would lose her. Whether it be at my own hands or due to her humanity. Nothing could have prepared me for what it would be like to feel her life slip away from mine; to feel her soul leave her body and to hold her corpse in my arms. That pain will haunt me for the rest of my life and as an immortal being, that means this ghost will be with me always.I look down at Gabriella as she sleeps peacefully on her bed, her mind needing to recharge from all that has overwhelmed it today. I can feel in my essram that she is still the same Gabriella at her core, but I can’t help still feeling a sense of loss. I carefully reach out, picking up a lock of her dark, forest-green hair and run it between my fingers. It has the same luminous quality Fretez’s always had, and yet it seems more intense to my eyes, perhaps because of what she is t
He holds his hands out in front of him, conjuring a giant ball of black energy and purple electricity. I watch as it draws darkness into itself, but then I notice where the energy is coming from. As I glance around to the barely recognisable field, I see the eyti getting pulled towards it. I don’t think he’s even aware of what he’s doing, but he’s using them to power up his attack, and that’s one thing I can’t let happen.I glance at Zarseti who gives me an encouraging nod. She told me to trust my instincts, and that’s what I’m going to do.I reach out through my mind, feeling for Merlos’ thoughts. Her eyes connect with mine when she senses the connection, quirking an eyebrow at me. 'Merlos, I need you to blind every mortal around us,' I say urgently through my mind.Her brows deepen in confusion for only a second when realisation fills her expression and her mouth quirks up into a smirk of approval. 'Now that, I can do.' With a disinterested wave of her hand, she fills the eyes of ev