AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, we weren't doing this on her terms. We were doing it on mine and I'd be damned if I let her do any more damage to my family.
I whispered a short spell as I slowly moved up the dirt road in the direction of the Motel. It would keep me in the shadows and on silent feet. It, like all magic, came at a cost and after a while would start draining on my energy. I'd need to eat something to replenish myself and for that reason alone I had always kept my glove compartment well stocked with a bottle of water and plenty of energy bars that would work in a pinch to refuel my low energy.
I knew it wouldn't be hard for the Council to see right through my pathetic attempt at shielding but at this juncture anything was better than nothing and, as strong as she claimed to be, Annabell wouldn't be able to see through it as easily as the Council would be able to. She was no where near as strong as she claimed to be. In fact, compared to the kind of power Ariel had started to give off, Annabell's magic abilities were starting to look like a joke, something laughable in comparison.
I crept along the shadows of the tree line as I moved down the dirt road. When I made it to the vehicles in front of the building I stuck to the shadows as I moved between them.
The lights in every room were lit up and the entire building gave off a bright, happy glow that was so out of place here in the backwoods coming off of this dumpy, gloomy building that it would have been laughable if it hadn't been so damn creepy. And, oddly enough, the place was eerily quiet. I knew the place was probably spelled in some way that kept the noise level down to nonexistent but it made it creepy outside to not even hear the slightest rustling of leaves in the surrounding woods.
I had no idea where I was going when I hit the front of the building, but for some unknown reason I was drawn to the stairs. I didn't question it. I let my instincts take over and followed behind them. I was half way up the wooden stairs before I realized it wasn't my instincts I was following but the essence of someone else's magic that had once violated me in a way I knew down to my very soul that I would never, not ever, fucking forget a second of. Magic that had been used against me in a way that wasn't allowed amongst the covens here in the U.S. Magic that had been used to control my every emotion.
Yeah, oh yeah, I fuckinghatedAnnabell.
I followed the sour taste of her magic until I came to the third door on the right. Without hesitation, I placed my hand on the knob and turned. The door opened up and I stepped inside.
I wasn't surprised in the slightest by the richness of the room I'd stepped into. It looked a whole lot like a formal sitting room that belonged in a house from a different time. The floor was covered in a priceless Persian rug decorated in deep, rich colors. The chair and couch that were seated across from each other looked so delicate there was no doubt in my mind that if a heavier set person were to sit down on one and take a load off the thin, curved legs on either piece of furniture would likely snap under the weight. Maybe they were sturdier than they looked, and, given their age I imagined they had to have been to withstand the years they had without breaking, but I'd much rather take my chances and sit my ass on the floor if I had to, thank you very much. A fancy silver tea set had been placed on the center of a table in between the couch and chair. Steam rose from the tea cups, letting me know the contents inside had recently been poured.
That was one thing I certainly didn't miss about Annabell, her love for tea. She never enjoyed coffee and she thought soda was so full of sugar that it disgusted her. And she could never just heat up water in the microwave and dip her tea bag into it. Oh no, nothing so mundane for the precious Annabell. She had to have a set up like this with the full-blown tea set every single fucking time she had her tea, which, in case you were wondering, was all the fucking time. And, it gets worse, because of how she'd been raised and the princess she arrogantly thought herself to be, she expected someone else to wait on her every single time she had her tea because she thought she was too good to pour it out her damned self and always expected someone else to do it for her.
I shook my head, amazed by how far gone I'd been in my grief and choked up by her magic to have put up with that level of bullshit from her. Because it had been me who'd made her tea and poured it for her and had treated her like she'd been a real-life living, breathing princess and she hadn't deserved that kind of treatment from me and had used my grief and her magic to take it from me all the same.
I didn't know if she'd been the same way with Julian or Damien, but for some reason, I didn't think they'd have put up with that level of bullshit from her. Which really told me something because I knew that if Ariel had asked they both would jump at the chance to wait on her. Hell, Damien already did shit like that for her with her coffee. The girl could be a little demon in the mornings until you poured coffee down her throat, once that was done she was happy as all get out. She didn't even need to ask the guys anymore, they all just automatically brought her coffee in the morning. And it wasn't because they felt like they had to or even because she demanded it of them, because she didn't. It was because she was Ariel, the girl we were all slowly falling in love with, and we relished in doing nice things for her because she'd lived a life where nice wasn't something she'd ever been used to because it wasn’t something she’d ever had before.
Where Ariel had earned it from us by being her crazy beautiful sweet self, Annabell had magically manipulated and demanded it, forcing it from us.
The fact that she'd used her magic so willfully on myself and my brothers in order to bend us to her will and get what she wanted out of us should have had me terrified to be here alone with her and should have had me turning and running for the hills straight back to my Uncle so I could get him to take care of the bitch for me. If I'm being honest here, there was a small part of me that wanted to do just that and, in doing so, get as far away from her as I could get. I couldn't do it though because it was cowardly and it would make it so I never got over what the bitch had done to me. I had to face my fears in order to overcome them, to become a stronger man than I had been when I'd been weak enough to allow her to do damage to my life the first time around. I had to do it for Ariel. She needed me strong for her. Strong enough to take care of her no matter the situation. Strong enough to know that if it came down to a magic show with Annabell that I could best her and she'd never be allowed anywhere near my beautiful, sweet girl.
I took in a deep breath and searched for the courage to get myself through this.
My vision was filled with an image of hauntingly green eyes. They held a depth of secrets and torment that I found almost unbearable to take in. Two months ago, they were hauntingly pretty. Now, they held a coldness to them that saddened me.
I drew strength from them all the same.
My girl and her immense courage and resilience gave me the strength and my own courage to walk through that stupid formal sitting room to the door that would lead me deeper into the inner sanctum of the Motel and, thus, the Council itself.
Again, I didn't hesitate with the doorknob, I simply placed my hand on it, turned and pushed the door open wide. My heart beat heavily in my chest as I waited for someone to shout at the sight of the intruder and scream for help.
I was met with entirely different sounds and a sight I wished I could unsee and knew I would spend a whole lot of time wishing it were different and having my wishes not come true.
If there was furniture in the room outside of the bed, I failed to see it. My eyes were wide in shock and unfortunately focused on what was taking place on the bed.
I needed a bucket of bleach for my poor eyes so I could pour it over top of my head and blind myself from seeing anything further in this room.
Annabell had always been frighteningly thin, something she'd worked her ass off (literally) for. She worked out obsessively and she ate but a lot of the time she would later stick her fingers down her throat so she could vomit it all back up. The unhealthiness of it had always bothered me and I had tried talking to her about it but she'd always shut me down and refused to talk about it.
However, if I'd thought her unhealthy before I hadn't seen anything because this was a whole new level of skinny that had passed skinny and moved straight towards skeletal. Each rib stuck out with blinding clarity and, from her place on her stomach on the bed, I had a clear view of her bony, knobby spine that was clearly visible.
Adrian, who I never wished to see naked before, was on his ass in the bed with his thighs split wide, his hand gripped tight in Annabell's luscious red hair. Her face was buried in his groin and from the bobbing of her head and the sucking sounds she was making I knew she had her mouth on him and was sucking him off. Something I knew from past experiences that she absolutely loathed doing and thought was way below her princess station that she imagined herself to be a part of. She seemed to be enjoying herself just fine now.
An older man with a body full of loose skin stood at the edge of the bed with his back and his bare ass facing me. He had what looked like a painful grip on Annabell's fragile looking hips as he thrust powerfully between her thighs. Her entire body jerked forward with each thrust, as did the bed. The skin on his back and bare ass wobbled with each thrust he made. A long, dark, thick braid trailed down the center of his back and slithered around like a snake with each move he made.
Christ.
What the fuck was this?
I backed out of the room and closed the door softly, no longer wishing for my presence to be known.
I grimaced as I rubbed my hand over my tired and now too wide for my head eyes. Annabell wasn't just staying here with the Council, she was doing them as well.
