Fated to Return (The Death Eater Series Book 3) Read online

  Fated to Return

  Book Three: The Death Eater Series

  Catherine Stovall

  Published by

  Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC.

  Novi, Michigan 48374

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, including photocopying, recording, or transmitted by any means without written consent of the author and Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, establishments, names, companies, organizations and events were created by the author. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events, companies or organizations is coincidental.

  Cover by CLS Designs

  Edited by Elizabeth A. Lance

  Text Copyright © 2015 Catherine Stovall

  All rights reserved.

  Published by

  Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC.

  This Book is Dedicated toM with Love.

  Acknowledgements

  As always, I send thanks out to my children for teaching me to dream with my eyes wide open. Thank you to my family for believing in me and supporting me.

  Thank you to my friends for encouraging the voices in my head.

  Thank you to Samantha Ketteman for the endless phone coversations and online chats while writing this book and so many others.

  Thank you to Samantha Hebrock for being my biggest fan.

  Thank you to My Freaks, Geeks, and Ducky Dears.

  Together we will chase the sun, howl at the moon, and reach for the stars!

  Zane’s face distorted, eyes black and the veins bulging beneath them. The twisted grin he wore showed sharpening teeth. The death eater had risen, and its hunger gnashed at the surface.

  “Zane! No, baby, no.” Vega squirmed, tears leaping to her eyes. “It’s me. It’s Vega. Don’t hurt me. Please, Zane.”

  The sound of the helpless whimper only drove the monster closer to the killing edge. “I can see you, Vega. I can see the real you. Beneath this terror and helplessness, I can see your strength. I can see how very strong you are, and I want to crush you.” His hands rose to her biceps, squeezing until the tender flesh bruised.

  “If you can see me, then see my love.” She closed her eyes, letting her body go limp and unresisting in his grip. “Look into my heart.”

  The invisible tentacle stretched up, its sharp barbs gently pressing into her inner mind, prying open the deepest barriers. The pain threatened to destroy her, and she bit down on her lip to prevent crying out. Vega knew weakness and fear would only entice the hunter in him.

  “Brave, so brave. Would you be my willing lamb for the slaughter, Vega?” Zane stroked her cheek, his lips a whisper away from hers. The promise of that kiss was a deadly one, and he loved the way she shivered as his breath tickled her cheek.

  “Kiss me quick then, so I can be reborn loving you,” she whispered. Her only regret was that he had become the demon to save her, and she had only condemned him to hell when she’d tried to save him.

  His hand slipped down her cheek, circling her throat. The fingers tightened, vice grips on her windpipe. “You will not be reborn again. Have you forgotten? By breaking your curse, you’ve given up your reincarnation. No more chances, girl. Your death will taste even sweeter for all that you feel and say.”

  Unable to remain passive as her throat collapsed and burned under the pressure, Vega grabbed his arm. Her eyes were wide and pleading. Her lips moved soundlessly as she tried to beg. Flashes of their life before she’d made the deal with Eurynome and the few nights spent in each other’s arms since then, seared into her mind. Even as she drew blood with her nails, she felt his influence in her head, telling her to be still. Unable to fight the command, her hands fell back to her sides.

  “Enough!” The power of the priest’s voice shook the world around them, and a flash of bright light sent stars dancing through Vega’s already blurred vision. “Death eater, face me.”

  Zane’s hand tightened for just a second longer before he released her and turned.

  Vega fell, clutching her neck as she coughed and gasped for air. The invisible line connecting her to Zane snapped back away from her mind, and in its place, fear flooded every nerve ending and synapses. The knowledge that he would’ve killed her, hurt far worse than the feeling of his powerful hands squeezing her life away. The man she loved more than life for lifetimes of hell had nearly strangled her to death at the foot of their burial tombs.

  On hands and knees, she still reached out her hand to him, trying to force the words through her raw vocal chords to prevent the evil that was overcoming him. Her weak tugging at his pant leg did nothing to stop the rage that boomed out of him.

  “You will not stop me, old man. This body is now mine. The boy is gone, and only I am left.”

  “What is your name, demon? In the name of the Lord, I compel you to give forth your name.”

  “I am known to many by many different names. I am powerful, I am strong.”

  “You are a vain weakling of a thing. The puppet of a greater demon. You are nothing but a damned soul. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” the priest made the sign of the cross, “I command you to give forth your name, demon.”

  Zane struck, his physical body launching forward and the snake of his power whipping outward. “My name shall be the Destroyer of Priests today!” he bellowed.

  Vega watched in horror as his once luscious mouth stretched into a cavernous and gaping hole. Eyes blazing with ebony fire, he grabbed for the gentle priest.

  With lightning reflex, the old man grabbed Zane’s head, his palms pressing like a vice against each side. As the two grappled, the priest called out in Latin, “Exsúrgat Deus etdissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus. Sicut déficit fumus defíciant; sicut fluit cera a fácie ígnis, sic péreant peccatóres a fácie Dei.”

  Zane roared, defiance and hate echoing in the wordless cry.

  Over and over, the priest chanted the Latin prayer, as Vega whispered along with him. “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered: and let them that hate Him flee from before His face!

  As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish away: as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”

  Their knees buckled, the older of the two panting heavily as the words puffed out of him in an eerie cadence, the younger screaming in pain. Vega could see the struggle was waning; the priest was losing. A shimmer at the base of the man’s skull told her that Zane was gaining control with the vicious appendage that he used to mind rape his victims.

  Crawling on her hands and knees, she ignored the feeling of sandpaper in her throat, and screamed, “Go in peace, and the Lord be with you.” The moment she touched them at the same time, the world rumbled once more and the flash of light blinded her eyes. A powerful force blew the three of them apart, each landing in a different direction.

  As the color returned to the world, Vega raised herself from the ground and looked at Zane, lying in a helpless heap. A small bit of blood seeped out from his forehead, where he’d smashed against the stone coffin. The priest lay on his side in the grass, looking pale and nearly translucent. Betraying her heart, and following her mind, Vega ran to the servant of God first.

  “What can I do? How do I help? Is there a way to stop him, and not lose him?”

  The priest slid his wrinkled hand atop of hers and smiled. “Learn the demon’s name. That is the only way you will exorcise it. Once you know its true identity, you shall hold the power.” He paused, eyes shifting to the h
eavens, and sighed. “I have wandered this realm for so long— waiting for you and him. I wish I could have done more, I wish I could help more now. I’m tired, little Vega. My power is gone. The demon sleeps inside him, but when it wakes again, it won’t be so easily dispelled. If you can’t leave him, then return to the world and save him. God be with you, my child.”

  Tears dripped down Vega’s cheeks as she watched him fade away. Not a true death, she knew he was only returning to whatever peaceful afterlife he had earned by his selfless deeds, but she felt the loss just the same.

  Palms pressed into the grass where he had lain, she cried with abandon. “Death, over and over. So much loss. I…can’t do it.” Lost in her misery, she never heard Zane approach.

  His hand rested on her shoulder, and she jerked away, her screams echoing in the quiet of the day. Vega scrambled backward. No longer willing to be the martyr for their love, she fought to gain her footing so that she might escape.

  “Vega. It’s me. What happened? Why are you so scared?” He chased after her, confusion and hurt shining in his eyes. “Baby, talk to me.”

  She froze, body trembling and breath hitching in her still sore throat. “Stay away from me!”

  “But, Vega, what’s wrong? What happened? Where’s the priest?” Zane fell to his knees a few feet away, his face upturned.

  “You…you tried to kill me,” she sobbed.

  He moved with careful slowness, unwilling to frighten her any more than he already had. When he reached her, and she did not resist, he pulled her into his lap and gently rocked her as if she were a child.

  “Sh. Don’t cry, Vega. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her as she curled against his chest. “We can do this. We can beat this. We can’t give up now. We’ve come too far, fought to hard. Just hang on, okay?”

  When she only sniffled as a reply, he tilted her chin up so that their eyes met.

  “Tell me you still believe in me. Say that you still believe in us. I can’t fight this without you. I love you.”

  Vega swallowed back her sobs, though the tears danced on her lashes like liquid diamonds. “I love you, too. I don’t know if we can do this. I don’t know if we will survive, but I know we are stronger together than we’d ever be apart.”

  Their lips met, and together, the two faded into a bright wash of light—fated to return to the world that they had not fully shared since before the war and Eurynome had entered their lives.

  They awakened, side by side, lying on the cool, wet tiles of the bathroom floor. Trembling and shaking in each other arms, they kissed passionately for a long while, the feel of holding each other a novelty to them after all the time they had been forced apart. Even as they drew their selves up from the floor, they couldn’t stop touching, staring, trying to grasp that they had survived.

  When at last they pulled apart, Vega whispered, “God, it’s no wonder I hate the smell of roses. Death and roses seem to go hand in hand. All those lifetimes that I lived and died. The eternity that you spent as Eurynome’s slave. All that time, our souls rested in a rose garden. What a perfect freaking sentiment. Pretty, twisted, perfumed thorns meant to draw someone in and hurt them. I never want to see another rose again.”

  Zane chuckled softly as he gently wrapped her in a towel and took her hand. Stepping into the hallway, the lovers breathed a sigh of relief, before Vega gasped. Staring into the kitchen, she began to cry again. Eurynome was gone, sent back to the depths of Hell. Vega was freed from her curse. Those who had hurt her were dead and gone. Only two things still plagued the couple who had spent countless lifetimes fighting for their love: the demon inside of Zane and the woman Vega had strangled and left dead on the kitchen floor.

  The house reeked of death, and Zane’s nostrils flared as a flash of darkness crossed his ice-blue eyes. Muscles tensed, he felt the demon’s claws and heard its cries for release. With a fire that burned him deep inside, he pressed back.

  “Zane, you okay?” Fear laced her words like a poison to his strength.

  In a quiet growl, he responded, “Go in your room. Get dressed. Stay here until I come back. Lock the doors. Don’t let me in unless I can talk like I have some sense. I’ve got to go move the body.”

  Her fingers wrapped around his bicep, unwilling to let him go. “You can’t. It might reawaken the demon.”

  Another flash darkened his eyes. “You wanna do it?”

  Vega bit into her lower lip, worrying it with such unconscious beauty that he instantly regretted his words. Pulling her close, he whispered in her ear, “It’s okay. I can do this.” He laced his fingers with hers and brought their hands up between their chests. “Together, we can do anything, but let me do this for you.”

  “I don’t need you to clean up my messes, Zane,” Vega said the words, but without much heart.

  He pressed his lips to her forehead, “I’m a killer, Vega. This is what I do best. Go change your clothes, pack everything you need. We are leaving this cursed house tonight.”

  Finally relinquishing she kissed him once more. “Hurry back to me.”

  It felt as if days had come and gone as they had battled Eurynome, talked with the priest, and found their way back again. Yet, it had only been hours since she’d attempted to take her life. The exhaustion and mental strain scraped along her nerves, but Vega felt stronger than she ever had.

  Without him next to her, Vega shivered. Her hair still wet and without clothes, the sudden chill in the house climbed her spine like icy fingertips. She threw on a pair of lose sweats and a t-shirt, before turning back to the bathroom.

  The tub was filled with water, red from her blood, and cold from the time that had passed. Eyes squeezed shut, she slipped her hand into the water and pulled the drain. Thoughts of her attempted suicide filling her mind, she fought against the guilt and shame of all she’d done. Diana, Bill, Shelley, and countless others—their deaths laid heavy on her shoulders.

  Even with Zane’s love, the pain and grief did not fade. Her heart soared with thoughts of him, but plummeted with the knowledge that her one selfish wish had caused so much grief for so many others. Her stomach lurched as she watched the blood swirl into the drain. It did not escape her that the people who’d been Eurynome’s playthings in his scheme to destroy her might not have had such horrible lives or deaths if she’d not been born into their lives.

  Vega turned on the hot water, desperately scrubbing the filmy pink line that ran around the porcelain sides. She ignored the blade, glistening in the bottom, afraid to touch the instrument of her demise. Something about the gleam of the blade made her afraid. When at last the tub shined, no proof of her sacrifice remaining, she used the cloth to extract the straight razor. She carefully pushed the blade into the handle and wrapped the wet towel around it multiple times, before shoving it into the nearly full wastebasket.

  Still trembling and feeling as if she could fall into a coma, Vega stumbled from the bathroom and into her bedroom. She grabbed some clothes, a few papers, and some personal items. The bric-a-brac in her room suddenly seemed impersonal. With the money from her real parents’ estate, she had no use for the cheap hand-me-down and thrift store clothes or discount make-up. Her drawings had all been destroyed, and nothing else seemed to matter. Her life in the small house was easily condensed to less than a half-full shoulder bag. From room to room, she moved as if she were made of stone. Her limbs felt heavy and stiff, weighed down by the deaths of so many. She collected some jewelry and some things that had been left behind after Diane and Bill’s deaths, and tossed them in the bag.

  “I should be happy,” she told the empty house. “I’m leaving here today, just like I always hoped I would. I have money. I have Zane.” She gathered the box of her real parents’ things and placed it next to the door. “There’s nothing here left to miss, everything was poisoned a long time ago.”

  No matter what she said aloud, she couldn’t drive away the mysterious cloud of sadness hanging in the air. Her every memory had been created
while living beneath the sagging roof, none of them happy, but they were hers just the same. Sliding into the stool at the kitchen counter, she made herself a cup of coffee, and stared out the window as she always had.

  “Too much death here, too much pain.” A small smile played across her lips as she remembered sitting in the same spot wishing Zane was real. “I’m leaving this all behind.” With the finality of the situation upon her, Vega added the last piece of her new life to the bag—a checkbook and debit card that provided her access to funds she’d never dreamed of having.

  ****

  The construction site offered the perfect environment. The ground had been packed and leveled, ready for the concrete to be poured. Once he buried the woman’s body and smoothed over the wet dirt, no one would even notice. Within a week, the foundation would hide her forever. Maybe decades later, when human hands or natural disasters tore down the building, they’d find her. Until then, she’d be hidden away and he and Vega could at last be together and free of death.

  The crinkle of the large, plastic yard bags he’d wrapped Shelley in made him think of the crackling of dried flesh on bone. The monster within him flashed a hungry smile, its sickness still able to reach his brain. Even the smell of stale and rotting death made the beast churn. Weak from the priest’s attack, it did not have the strength to claw up from the dark hole inside of Zane, but it was still there. He could feel it, an evil that foamed at the mouth and hungered to destroy.

  Zane ignored the thing as he hefted the woman out of the trunk, carried her across the muddy terrain, and dumped her unceremoniously into the deep hole he had dug. He tried to feel remorse, anger, a sadness for the loss of a life. He pushed at his inner barriers, the space around where the poisoned presence of the demon resided, to find some splice of humanity still within him.