Soulless (Once Wicked #1) Read online

  Soulless (Once Wicked Series)

  Author: Sarah J. Pepper

  Editor: Stephanie Rose

  Published by Neximus Publishing

  Copyright © Sarah J. Pepper 2015

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  Prologue:

  Declan Stilts—the demon who murdered my family—held a dying young woman in his arms. Poor thing. No one should be forced to keep Stilts’ company, not even in death. No one! I blamed myself for her having to suffer through this. I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance, but I couldn’t change the past no matter how many times I replayed it over and over in my head.

  I felt an obligation to go to the woman and free her from Stilts’ grasp. But, as it were, he was far too powerful and I was a coward. I hated that about myself, but it wasn’t the only reason I hesitated. It was the sight of the young woman herself that gave me pause. Her appearance was paralyzing. So instead, I watched through a crack in the bathroom door.

  Blood from her chest wound wetted her midnight blue dress making parts of it appear black. She coughed up a little blood as she struggled to breathe, the spatter turning her lips crimson. The contrast to her pale, freckled skin was breathtaking. Still, the fierceness in her eyes never faltered. Not even death could steal her defiance. The chilling beauty in her final moments was absolutely captivating.

  Paralyzing. Alluring. Haunting. Sometimes the most beautiful moments in our lives were the final seconds.

  It was a shame that death would come prematurely to her. She didn’t look a day over twenty. That didn’t matter, though. I knew all too well that looks could be deceiving. The monster clinging to her was centuries old, yet he looked to be in the prime of his life.

  But it was all a lie. A vicious lie that allowed him to corrupt everyone around him. Nothing good came of Stilts. He even tarnished death itself. That is why it did not surprise me that he was responsible for such a crime scene. It looked like many of the other horrific nightmares I’d watched him create over the centuries. He blamed it on his diabolical rage, and on this we were in agreement. The one thing I’d learned from stalking Stilts was that he was one of the most spiteful, manipulative, and vile demons who walked the earth.

  Proof: One look around the Bellagio hotel room confirmed beyond a doubt that Stilts hadn’t changed. Before he tended to the dying girl, I had watched him wrap his hands around her mother’s neck. The woman aged decades in a matter of seconds as he sucked the life from her soul. Her body fell to the floor, old and decrepit. As if this wasn’t troubling enough, he had snapped a police officer’s neck, ending his life in a split second. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the sight of him taking the lives of others.

  He’d killed before. He’d kill again. After all, once a murderer, always a murderer life-sucking demon.

  Stilts would soon be responsible for killing another Jane Doe. None of this was uncommon. His death toll was impressive, as was that of most psychopaths.

  Yet, the young woman clung onto Stilts as though it was worth fighting for each precious second with him. I couldn’t imagine what lies he’d spoken to get her to fall so hopelessly for him. More pitiful, manipulative lies.

  “You’ll find freedom in death,” he whispered, wiping the tears from her freckled cheeks.

  “I don’t want to be free of you,” she gasped.

  Stilts closed his emerald eyes tightly as he rocked her in his arms. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else was relevant. Surrounded by all of his precious possessions—the extravagant suite at the Bellagio, his Prada attire, his Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses, and all the other things that were hallmark possessions of a millionaire—Stilts held onto the young woman like she was the most valuable thing his kind of blood money could buy.

  On the contrary, she didn’t look like a gold digger and was certainly not eye candy. Her face wasn’t all that symmetrical, and her body was not long and willowy like the others I had seen him with. Even her long brown hair that spilled over her shoulders should have been beautiful, but it was simply dull and unremarkable.

  What was he doing with someone so ordinary?

  Somehow she was more significant in his life than any other model he’d paraded around with for the paparazzi. Women had been nothing more than fashion accessories, like cufflinks he wore on his arm—used and then forgotten about. Yet, this young woman was different to him. It was the goodbye kiss that solidified his affection for her.

  “Forgive me,” he whispered.

  And then, without hesitation, Stilts slammed a dagger into her chest.

  There he was! There was the murderous demon I loathed.

  I wrote the girl off as “good-as-dead” when sparks burst from the weapon. The dagger began burning away the good pieces of her soul the moment it struck her heart. It corrupted her with greed and torment. I knew she’d be afflicted with an uncontrollable hunger which would compel her to commit the most heinous crimes. The humanity within her would soon rot away until there was only a demonic presence.

  How did I know?

  Long ago, Stilts and I were colleagues in the most disturbing way possible. It was because of our association that I knew the dagger was laced with the Incubus Curse—the curse he just bestowed upon this young woman.

  I’d never seen this ruthless, manipulative animal show humane sentiment, much less shed a tear. But there one was, trickling down his cheek. Proof that she was priceless to him. It made her even more valuable to me…if she survived the transformation.

  “I told you, no matter the cost, you will be mine,” he said, gazing at her as though she was his everything.

  And so the demon fell in love and turned his beloved into a monster like himself, I thought to myself as I witnessed the girl take her first breath as a corrupt being.

  It wasn’t the first time I had seen Stilts decimate the beauty of love.

  Once upon a time, I watched my home go up in flames. The blaze licked the walls, crawled up over the roof, and quickly engulfed everything in a fiery rage. Burns marked my skin. Heat blanketed my body. But the wounds were nothing compared to the horror residing in my heart. For through the singed windows, I watched my family burn.

  Each time I tried to move closer, the heat overcame me. Smoke filled my lungs. I couldn’t do anything but witness their deaths. I watched the life in my beloved’s eyes turn dull like a doll’s. The pleas of my children were silenced as the fire consumed their bodies, but their screams were forever burned into my memory.

  Time passed. I wasn’t sure if it was mere hours or days. Time was irrelevant. Nothing mattered anymore. I had long since fallen to my knees and wept. Everything turned to ash, except for their bones. Those charred remains were all that was left.

  It was only when the smoke cleared did that horrid demon show his face. Stilts crept out of the shadows of the night, laughing as he walked over the ash. That sound—that horrible laugh—cut through me like shards of glass.

  “Gepetta, I warned you that if you double-crossed me, you’d pay tenfold,” he said, looking down at me like I was some pathetic, ordinary human who needed to be taught a lesson.

  His green eyes held a diseased stare that left me cold. The red hues in his blackened hair looked like blood spattered from all of the people he had killed over the years—justified because of the Incubus Curse he bore. The whiteness of his skin looked like a corpse. I supposed it was warranted since he died by the dagger and now walked the earth as an immortal.

  “You burned everything and everyone important to me because I double-crossed you?” I sobbed.

  “We had an agreement. One that you broke and turned into something disgusting. How many souls did you trap so you could do your experiments?”

  “They begged me to save them!” I yelled. I wasn’t about to justify what I did to someone like him. He was a creator of death; I was a practitioner of life. He wouldn’t understand. “I couldn’t just let them die. I had to save them!”

  “By stuffing their souls—”

  “Shut up!” I screamed and grabbed one of the larger bones. It burned my hand, but the pain was nothing compared to the ache in my heart.

  I charged him. With all my strength, I slammed the bone against his shoulder. Stilts didn’t even flinch. When I swung at him again, he grabbed the bone away from me and crushed it in his hand. Bits fell to the ground. I was horrified. Not simply because I used their remains as a weapon, but that he allowed me to live when it would be easier to kill me. It would have been more merciful to end my life on the very ground where my family perished. But, he didn’t. He wanted me to suffer.

  Dusting off his hand, Stilts looked bored.

  Splinters of the bone fell to the ground. I picked them up so I could bury them with the other remains. Everything dissipated because of him. He was so powerful that he didn’t even put up a fight as my family turned to a memory.

  “One day I’ll take away everything you care about, Rumpelstiltskin,” I sneered. Few knew of his true name. I would say it over and over again just to spite him, for I knew it triggered his rage. Even I could manipulate him when I uttered his namesake, like a puppet master pulling his s
trings, making him more predictable.

  His eye twitched. It was one of the few human expressions he had left. “Then I shall consider myself lucky that I care about nothing, unlike you, my precious little hoarder, Gepetta.”

  The way he spoke my name was as if it was a curse itself. How close to the truth he was. We were both cursed. He with the Incubus Curse and me…Well, I collected things.

  Like the young woman before him now, my happily-ever-after ended prematurely because of Stilts. He was the reason for all of my misery. But I couldn’t let the past continue to haunt me now. I shook away the bitter memory and focused on the demon who stole everything from me. After all these years of waiting, Rumpelstiltskin finally had someone he cared about. I just needed to exploit his weakness…

  And then I’m going to watch her burn.

  Eight Chapter One: Declan Stilts

  Holding Piper in my arms as her life came back to her was the single, most precious moment I’d ever experienced. I’d suffered through years of torment, decades of hunger, and centuries of mistrust; but, it was a handful of seconds with her that made every tortuous experience worth it. Fate granted us that handful of seconds, and knowing that Piper loved me was a miracle I did not deserve.

  Watching her suffer after her mother, Emilie, had stabbed her was the worse sight I’d ever seen in my three hundred forty-eight years of life. I’d held her in my arms as she took her final breath. I would never forget looking into her eyes as they dulled and her soul slipped from her body. To hold someone I cared about as they died…The moment would be burned into my memory and haunt me for all eternity, as would the memory of her love.

  I should have simply let Piper pass and been done with her like all the others I’d killed. I’d taken enough lives. One more should have been no different. But, when she whispered her confession that she did not want to be free of me, my greed consumed me. I couldn’t let Piper go. Not her. She was different.

  No matter how I tried, I couldn’t be free of her. Not even in death would I find freedom.

  Hell, she’d haunt me till the end of time just to spite me. Piper was untamable and death would not silence that tongue of hers. I loved that about her. I loved so many things about her…So many things I wasn’t ready to live without.

  “Forgive me,” I had whispered with my grip tight around the hilt of the dagger.

  If it was in my power to simply breathe life back into her body, I would have never stabbed her with the dagger. However, even as powerful as I was, I couldn’t stop death from claiming her. The dagger was her only hope.

  When I pierced her heart, I gave Piper back her life by passing along the Incubus Curse. Or at least part of it. The curse was never meant for two people to carry. Although I craved humanity, I loved Piper more. I couldn’t bear to live without her, nor could I do the most heinous act of all: pass along the entire curse and let her carry it alone. I couldn’t salvage my humanity at the price of hers. I wouldn’t do that to her. I cared too deeply for her to let her live the torturous life I had just because she was careless with her heart and fell for a monster…For me. Now she’d become a demon herself.

  Sparks danced from the weapon, solidifying the Incubus Curse. As soon as the hot metal parted from her body, Piper’s heart beat once more; and it would continue to beat forever. Forever. That word rang loudly in my ears as her heartbeat fluttered against my fingertips. Immortality was a side effect of the curse. One of many.

  In addition to immortality, her other talents would present themselves soon enough. As her humanity slowly unraveled, her demonic traits would surface. She’d uncover the benefits of being cursed an incubus—a vampire of sorts—who fed off of humans. But instead of drinking blood for sustenance as vampires do, she’d consume their life’s essence.

  As for me, I breathed in their greed, their anger, their depravity. Their moral faults became my own. I took their evilness, and in return it corrupted my soul. I hated whom I’d become and how my corruption would change Piper. But it was the only way to save her.

  Just as I had, she’d learn to consume life’s essence. It would extend hers, resulting in a false immortality. We couldn’t age, but we were killable. The dagger extended our lives and it was the only thing that could end them.

  I took her hand in mine and dusted a light kiss on her soft skin. I whispered, “I told you, no matter the cost, you will be mine.”

  Piper was mine now. Unequivocally mine. She meant everything to me and I to her. I could feel her heartbeat as if it were my own. Her attraction washed over my skin along with her longing, hatred, worry, and love.

  Piper winced, “Loving you is painful.”

  Her voice—Piper’s voice had to have been recreated merely to rattle me. It so perfectly unraveled me of my surest decisions. The seductiveness of it flowed through me as if the vibrations were meant to reach places only she could.

  “I never promised you a happily-ever-after,” I teased.

  “Who said I wanted a cliché ending like that?” She smirked and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. She let out a soft whistle as she rubbed the redness between her fingers.

  “You’re whistling,” I said, and then frowned when she stopped to meet my stare.

  Her midnight blue eyes iced over as the transformation began to slowly take place. She licked her lips. If I didn’t know better, I would have bet she could taste my desire for her. But that was impossible…for now. She just turned. Her injuries weren’t completely healed. Thus, the results of the curse shouldn’t have taken effect, yet. However, the veins around her eyes illuminated with a white glow, like a star burst. Her lips turned the darkest shade of red. Since her skin was porcelain white, the result was dangerously spectacular. The frantic hunger I knew all too well seeped into her ghostly gaze.

  I rolled my thumb over her bottom lip and glanced at the freckles on her nose. “Never stop. It’s incredibly alluring, my Pied Piper.”

  When I spoke her pet name, Piper’s eyes immediately dropped to my lips. I could tell the nickname called to her in an unnatural manner by the way she moved against me.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Whatever you want. Your story has just begun, Piper,” I answered, waiting like an addict for her to speak again.

  She merely smiled as if she enjoyed tormenting me.

  In our moment of silence, I watched as the white veins around her eyes returned to their normal appearance. Though her eyes remained light blue, her lips slowly faded to their natural shade of pink. I felt more human the longer I stared at her mouth. Although I still struggled to maintain control of my desires, they were not focused on all the vile things that brought out my demonic nature. Rather, I desired Piper’s affection. She beckoned me.

  Holding her tight, her scent quickly became an aphrodisiac. She moved against me, her body begging for me. I wanted her, too…Every part of her. And I’d start with her lips. I would steal as many kisses as I desired.

  As soon as our mouths collided, a moan escaped from her throat. It resonated in mine. I fucking loved that sound. However, she pulled away from me and glared at me like I’d broken some unwritten rule. Her cheeks flushed, making her perfect fucking dimples stand out. Had I embarrassed her for coaxing that animalistic sound from her? I certainly hoped not. It was the sexiest noise I’d ever heard.

  When I attempted to take back what I wanted, she pressed her hand against my chest, stopping me. With a sly smile on her face, Piper shook her head no. She refused me. Me. Fuck, that was attractive as hell. This tiny woman did what most were scared shitless to do: defy me. Whether it was money or power, few people refused to grant me what I desired. Few were truly unafraid. Yet, she had stopped me with a simple touch.

  Leaning close she whispered in my ear, “Your heart is beating out of control. It is slamming against my fingertips. Am I making you nervous?”

  “That is not what I would call it.”

  When she pulled back, she was biting her bottom lip. Fuck! I swore she did these things to torture me. The intellect burning in her vibrant blue eyes proved one thing: She knew what she was doing and was enjoying the hell out of it. I tried for another kiss, but again, she refused me. Again! It was only when I growled in irritation that her resistance faltered. The corner of her mouth tugged. She was not embarrassed at all. Rather, she was teasing me.