Seven Sins (1-3)

HOME SWEET HOME (2)

It was the last memory of my mother I only seemed to be able to recall in my dreams. She was speaking to a tattooed woman who I could only remember as a shadow. The tattoos wound around her with black wisps, blocking out her face. It was magic that I remembered and that kept drawing me back to this place.

Magic that didn't want me to recall what had been done to me. Magic that had come from a witch. My mother clutched at me as if the woman might take me away.

"No!" she shouted. The sharp tone of her voice brought tears to my eyes.

She'd never told me what would happen when I turned sixteen. "Who is this, Mama?" I asked. The witch's voice never did come through quite right in my dreams and memory. The words came out as broken, garbled sounds, like pieces of glass falling down a metal tube.

"You made a deal," she hissed and reached for me. That's right. I always seemed to forget this part when I woke up.

My mother had sold her firstborn child in exchange for power over a Blood Stone... over the force of hell itself.

Anger burned in me that she'd have been capable of such a thing, but the way that she bravely stepped between the witch and me said how much she regretted such a bargain and she was going to fight to have it undone.. Perhaps she imagined she'd never get pregnant.

Perhaps I was a mistake and I was never supposed to have born. Regardless of her intentions, here was, p*****t due, and the Witch of Shadows had come to collect her debt.

"I curse you, witch," my mother spat, even as the witch's magic ripped her out of the way. I screamed as an invisible force dragged me to the witch's feet. Even in my dream-memory, I couldn't make out her features.

Tattoos and shadows spiraled around her, but the magic couldn't wipe out the scent that filled my nostrils. Sulfur. The stench of hell wrapped around me and made me gag. This was a Witch of the Shadow Coven, one of the dark arts and old ways.

Blood magic was the darkest of them all and even though I knew what was coming, I was horrified when its burning magic tingled through my veins. I turned to look at my mother, my vision blurred as tears welled in my eyes. I hated this part, not because of the pain that came next, but because I would have loved to have seen my mother again.

Even through the splotchy limit of my sight I knew she would be stunning. Sharp, angled cheekbones set on a stern face, currently tilted up in determination to use the power the witches had awarded her against them.

There was only one thing a Witch of the Shadow Coven could want with a virgin a succubus virgin, no less. Sacrifice to redeem a sin. I was to resolve one of the cardinal sins. Each supernatural was capable of this twisted purpose. I sensed the sins the witch had already quelled.

Four.

Four sins were missing from her rotten soul.

Greed.

Envy.

Gluttony.

Anger.

That left three left to be resolved.

Sloth.

Pride.

Lust...

I knew which one was for. I The witch raised her ceremonial dagger and moonlight glittered on its dangerous edge. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

"You will redeem me," the witch said as shadows writhed over her face, forming a malicious grin. I was the innocent daughter of a succubus. I could redeem a witch's sin -lust, in particular.

Witches who dabbled in dark arts eventually went to hell. There was a loophole, however. Sacrifice could get them off the hook, but not just any sacrifice. The seven cardinal sins had to be redeemed.

I buckled over when a sharp warmth spread through my belly just before the witch struck. Her blade bounced off an invisible wall with a loud clong that echoed through my chest and made my teeth clack.

Her eyes went wide as my mother chanted. She was the one who'd given a succubus magic, and now she dared to use it against her. My mother stretched out her hands and her mouth moved as she spoke words I didn't understand.

Power hummed in the air and her necklace gleamed with rub malice. Her eyes found me, just for a moment, and my vision cleared just long enough to see the panic and dread that would crush my heart to pieces so badly that I'd only ever remember this moment in the depths of my worst nightmares.

"Take the powers, my mother insisted as she crumpled to her knees. My mother snapped ner tingers and the witch screamed, but I didn't dare turn around. I kept my gaze pinned on my mother who wove her own magic through the air.

I'd never seen her do that before and I traced the gleaming red lines as they spidered and flicked the expanse between us before finally reaching my feet. The process was slow, as was the pain.

It started as a twinge deep in my belly, then a throb, and then it twisted and I whirled to find the witch contorted with it. Her shadows writhed around her as if enraged as my mother's ruby magic ripped at her.

Each sin she'd appeased filtered through the air.

The golden scale of a dragon's greed pierced the spot just above my navel and struck like the bite of a tiny but vicious insect. I cried out, but the magic held me tight as it continued its work.

The second sin came next, envy, a green and twisted rune that screwed into my skin to the right of my navel. My mother bellowed over my cries with encouragement, but I'd never been prepared for this sort of pain. The third sin came at me, ruthless in its rage.

Anger.

It burned hot to the left of my navel. I didn't have time to rest as the fourth sin, gluttony, oozed low on my stomach, dark and swollen red with blood that a vampire could gorge on for days. Black dots sprinkled my vision. Those were the sins the witch had managed to redeem, and so those were my only guaranteed gifts.

One day, I would find mates that matched those sins. The strongest of their race that would help me get revenge on the Shadow Coven for what they did to my kind, for what they had forced my mother to do to me.

The final three sins marked my body and I slumped to the ground as the world around me leapt into flames. Four sins with forgiveness, three unresolved. It would have to be enough. I would have to find a way for it to be enough.

As my dream ended, the world around me burned, and my mother took the witch with her to hell. The he memories faded of a nightmare that burned hot and made my runes itch all at once.

I hated that I couldn't remember it. It was as if my mind rejected any attempt at recalling the vile dream no matter how hard I tried.

It didn't matter. I was awake and I certainly wasn't getting any sleep now. Guilt stabbed harder than ever as I slunk through the midnight streets. Once again, I was drawn back to the one place that could give me some sense of reprieve.

Every step made me anxious. What if Sarah woke up and found me missing? What excuse was I going to tell her this time? No matter how much Sarah terrified me, I still found myself staring at the inconspicuous Succubi Den wedged between two buildings masquerading as a massage parlor.

The round-faced succubi gave me a beaming smile as I dragged myself through the foyer.

"Oh, honey, you look like you need more than a snack tonight." I slammed all the money I had onto the counter.

"Don't rub it in." She pushed my life's savings back towards me. "He said this one would be on the house."

She dangled a familiar golden key and I growled as shoved the money back into my pocket. I glared at her before I took her offering. She ushered me inside and allowed me to make my own way down the hall lined with red velvet.

When I unlocked the suite on the final row and swung the door open, he was waiting for me, and this time there weren't any sheets to obscure the view.

He leaned back against the headboard with his hands clasped behind him. His body twined with muscles and the lines at his hips pointed to a perfect c*ck already hard at my arrival.

"I've been waiting for this," he said. I frowned. I didn't know if it was the smug tone of his voice, or how trapped this life made me feel, but no matter how helpless I felt, there was always a choice.

With a growl i hurled the key at the ground. It clattered across marble floors as my vision wavered with red.

"No," I snapped. "I'm not going to live like this." He launched to his feet and his gaze burned with need and anger. I saw now why he'd offered a session for free.

My magic had affected him just as much as he'd affected me. He needed me, wanted me for what I was. That only made me clench my jaw with determination that I wasn't going to go through with this. "It's the rare succubus that lets herself starve." He tilted his head.

"Madame said you have a girlfriend. Would she really want you to die over fidelity?" I pinched my lips together.

He was probably right. If Sarah knew I needed s*x with a male to survive, she'd tell me to do it. But her heart would be broken, and damned if I was going to be the one to break the tender heart of a muse.

"I can't do this to her," I said through clenched teeth as tears stung my eyes.

"I just can't." He crossed the room and gripped my shoulders with a strength that made my knees buckle. He pulled me close and let me rest against the hard warmth of his chest.

"Madame said you're not welcome back after tonight." I stiffened.

"What?" He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"This place is for those who need help. The King doesn't support what you're doing, and if word got out, the Den would be forced to shut down."

He cupped my chin. "This pain you're causing yourself is pointless. After tonight, you're going to have to go back to the way it's meant to be." He leaned in and grazed his lips acros my neck.

"You're going to have to prey on men again and do what you do best. What you were made to do." Pain splintered through me as I shrieked.

"No!" I cried. "I won't kill to survive! I'm not a monster! Not like you." He didn't seem hurt by my outrage. Instead he gathered the bedsheets and wrapped it around his waist.

"I'm sorry. I can only hope you'll come to your senses and accept what you are, even if your girlfriend can't." As p*ss*d off as that incubus made me, he'd struck a nerve.

Sarah loved me, but she'd never been able to accept me for what I was.

The runes across my stomach were just an oddity, not a prophecy. That wouldn't change now, not even if I ever grew the balls to tell her the truth.

I was a killer. And if I wanted to survive, I was going to have to kill again, and the runes across my stomach were trying to tell me something important. When I looked up at the sky, those dark claws were there.

I blinked twice, and then they were gone. Perhaps it was the starvation making me see things, or perhaps it was a prophecy that I'd better start listening to.

I knew what I needed to do in order to survive. I was supposed to kill. Sarah would find out and see me for the monster than I am.

I clenched my fingers into fists and growled at the mocking sky.

"I'd rather starve." The second I arrived home, I curled into bed with a still-sleeping Sarah and let the sobs take me. She roused from a deep sleep, her eyes still heavy with satisfaction. That only made me cry harder.

"Babe," she said, wrapping her warmth and sweet magic around me, "it's okay. I'm here."

I cried into the curve of her graceful neck, and was surprised that she didn't try to pry into my head to find out what was bothering me.

She was a powerful muse, capable of ripping my mind apart if she so chose.

The reality struck me like a dagger. Maybe she was afraid of what she'd find. Forcing myself to sit up, I took her hands in mine.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's go to the bar tomorrow. There's something we need to talk about.”