Shadow Boxing Read online

  Shadow Boxing

  Book 3

  By Breukelen Girl

  © Copyright 2014

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  Prologue

  “Do you get it yet?” She asked me with a smile that was deliciously evil and meant to offend my shaky sensibilities.

  I wondered if she knew about me. I mean, really knew about me. The other me. She clearly knew of my existence or else I wouldn’t be there, but did she know what I could do?

  “He does, I can see it.”

  Tarin might be looking like a meal on a plate to her because of his compliance, but I suspected it had more to do with me and my doing. I glanced across at Tarin my demon lover, who was avoiding all eye contact with me.

  Part of me wanted to hit him and kick out at him, that was the part that was building with rage. Unprecedented, pure, Katelyn Phoenix rage. The other part of me doesn’t feel like that at all.

  Before I’d met Tarin, and fallen in love with him, I’d never really had a need for feelings. Never really indulged in them. I’d never had to. Because I didn’t have a boyfriend or lover or even a fuck buddy. I had clients, Johns, who wanted what they wanted from me and it sure as hell wasn’t emotions. They used me and I let them for the right price, that was the deal with my bodily transactions.

  But that went straight out the window when I met Tarin Armadel, Shadow Demon and I had no idea why. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me, and now, that was going to cost me, dearly. I just wasn’t sure if it would cost me Tarin, or myself.

  It was the cost for being naive about love and what it truly meant to be loved. I felt that in Tarin. He knew what that meant, he’d had that feeling once and then it had become twisted. I remained silent and glared at her. Why give her any more satisfaction than she was already getting out of me?

  “Oh, you don’t understand what this is all about do you?”

  “Yeah, I do.” I growled at her and looked back over at Tarin. “It’s about him. And how he can’t fucking keep his cock in his pants.”

  Tarin looked back over at me then. His eyes were locked onto mine, searching me. Despite me dropping my hand from his, but keeping minimal contact between us.

  “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you never once had a thought about fang fucking your beloved god. Remember, the only way you drink blood is not cold, and it’s not in a wine glass.” I said throwing his own words back at him. He’d said them to me not a week earlier. Referring to an incredible experience we’d shared, when he’d bitten me with his fangs at the height of my orgasm.

  “Where you after me, was it ever about me or was it just her.” I seethed at him. I didn’t have enough time to read him properly, it would become to obvious if I searched him internally for the answer and then our evil host would be displeased with us.

  “That’s not true Katelyn.” Tarin spoke solemnly.

  I took a guess anyway. “It’s always been about her.”

  The woman before us was beautiful, there was no doubt about that. I didn’t know if she was a vampire or not yet. I suspected she was, but I didn’t have any visual confirmation yet.

  “You are seriously fucked-up, Tarin. Damaged even.” There was a small visual flinch in his face at the sting of my words. Probably because he knew they were true.

  I looked back at the woman before us. She was glowing with pride at having one over me. At succeeding in her plan to snare Tarin Armadel with the one thing, he could not resist and it wasn’t me, so much as it was what was within me.

  That was the whole reason he’d stayed close to me, when we’d gone into hiding, that was why he’d tried to apparently rescue me from Arlow. Not out of obligation, not out of love even, it was out of need. I was a need.

  Because I had truth-sayer’s blood and my beautiful demon lover, was a junkie for my blood.

  More than that, he’d bought into whatever story this bitch before us had spun him about how he could have the truth sayer within, and the blood at the same time.

  At a price of killing me, the problem was the killing me part. That clearly required specifics. Hence the ruse to attract a Unicorn to assassinate its own sire, the god Asha who lived in my very mortal body.

  “You evil bitch.” I smarted at her. “The only way you can get what you want, is by manipulating him.”

  She clapped her hands together excitedly. “Now you’re on the same page as us.” She smirked. “Which is great, because now you understand?”

  I felt something flow in me, like a swirling mass of concentrated anger and hatred. I’d felt the same thing when I was fourteen. And people had died from that feeling, at my hands. Asha was waiting just under the surface of me.

  “In order for that to happen, you have to die.”

  “Do your worst?” I threw back at her.

  Two days earlier…

  I woke up with strong arms wrapped around me, a very naked male body pressed against the back of me and instantly felt regret. This couldn’t end well. Wouldn’t end well. Hadn’t been going all that well so far. Well, for the most part. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

  I mean, what girl decides that the demon who tried to kill her, then says sorry doesn’t actually mean it, and sleeps with him?

  What girl decides that the demon that then binds her to him, thinks he’s sexy enough to just forgive and have sex with? Oh right, me. Katelyn Phoenix, truth sayer host and all around loser. I lifted Tarin’s arm off me and slid out from under it and out of the bed.

  “Katelyn?” Tarin mumbled tiredly.

  I sighed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Being on the run and hiding out took it out on you as much as having sex with a demon did. I was out of shape or out of practice or time. Something had to give.

  “Just sleep Tarin.”

  It was three in the morning and I felt restless, I couldn’t really sleep and being awake made me feel guilty about laying naked next to my demonic, lover. Especially after the incredible make-up sex marathon we’d just had. I wasn’t sure exactly what would be coming for us, but it wouldn’t be any nicer than anything or anyone who had come at us so far.

  The past week was somewhat of a blur for me. It’d started off normal enough, nothing special to speak of. I’d been living my life the way I always did. By myself, and selling my body for sexual favors that translated to cash income. Then he’d come into the picture, one cold night. Tarin Armadel, a shadow demon.

  Only it wasn’t like he said that first off. Why would he? It was in Tarin’s nature to play games.

  There was a part of him that just couldn’t help it. He was somewhat predisposition to it, like a crack baby was pre-disposed to want drugs. Then it had all kind of gone south from there, normalcy, my life, our worlds.

  We were involved in something that we didn’t fully understand. I’d been targeted and Tarin had been the trigger catch to get to me. Since then we’d been fighting to survive attempts of kidnapping and killing on either of us. And it seemed we really couldn’t go too long without keeping our hands off each other.

  I Hear the rustling of the bed co
vers and look back over at him, as he sits further upright in bed. He is gorgeous. Long blond hair, hangs around him in a moonlight mess. His naked body revealed as sheets drop and hang low on him, whilst he leans on his arm, looking back over at me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  It surprises me that he is concerned enough to ask. “I can’t sleep.”

  “You mean you don’t want to sleep.” I hold his look. His bright blue eyes are unwavering from my gaze. He’s right, of course. Sleep means I’d have to relax and I have to forget and it means, it might be easier for her, to come out and play, with me, with him, or whoever else she wants to destroy and ruin.

  “Right.”

  “You can’t live in fear and without sleep.” He answers me with softly. “You need to sleep sometime Katelyn.”

  “You can live in fear. People across the world do it every day, Syria, Rwanda, North Korea, Iraq. Doesn’t make it right and doesn’t make it nice, but they do it because there is no choice.”

  “Right, and this isn’t Rwanda, or North Korea, it’s Melbourne, and you live in a culture and time where you have a choice and if you look after yourself, you remain in control of her. You’re the strongest vessel Asha’s ever had. No one in your line of heritage has ever had such control over her.”

  I sit down on the edge of the bed again. Damn it, he has a point. A good one. You didn’t get to be a housing vessel for a truth-sayer, an Asha Vahisita god, by being a mentally weak person.

  It takes a fair amount of strength, inner strength and emotional control to keep the balance between being totally possessed and being in charge of yourself. Otherwise I’d be no better than a schizophrenic with a split personality.

  I’ve carried the Asha Vahisita my whole life and lately, that has become somewhat of a strain and a danger, to everyone, myself included. Tarin slides his hand across the mattress towards me and reaches for my hand.

  “Hey,” he mutters softly.

  I put my hand in his. Comfort is a new concept to me, much like my feelings for Tarin. I’ve been on my own for so damn long, it’s like an awakening being involved with him, whether it’s good or bad, I’m not sure. It’s more than I’d previously ever known.

  The past week, had not been the best way to introduce me to intimacy, and all these brand new feelings. Especially since I had only been involved in things, part-time so to speak.

  The Asha Vahisita that I housed in my bloodstream, had been large and in charge for most of that time. I thought at first, because it meant I could run away and not deal with Tarin and what had happened between us. What with the attempted murder of me and all.

  “Don’t beat yourself up over what happened.”

  Tarin thought it was because Asha could do more damage to our enemies with her power rather than a spooked and emotionally rattled former street hooker, namely, me. We’d both been very, very, wrong. Now we were scared and screwed, together, somewhat.

  “Please come back to bed.” He says softly tugging at my hand. “You need to sleep, you’ve been on hyper alert for the past few days.”

  “Begging Tarin?”

  “I wouldn’t call politely asking for something, begging.” He says smiling quickly and flashing large top fangs at me, before closing his mouth again. Damn him. He knows I like those fangs. More than like them.

  Sex when being bitten as it turned out, was a kink I’d never known I’d had until I’d had it with him. It also got him off just as much if not more, than it got me off.

  “Begging really suits you, you know that?” I smirked swiveling around and crawling back into the bed, and across to him.

  “I wasn’t begging.” He counter defended, pulling me into his body fast. His erection was hard and un-miss able against the softness of my thighs. My hands splayed across his chest, he was all muscle, all definition. Which suited him. Tarin was an intense personality, this was about as playful as he’d ever gotten with me.

  But then again, when it came to me, he did seem to have somewhat of an obsession. I supposed it was because of the truth-sayer blood in me. Tarin rather liked it, sometimes, too much.

  As a result, I was in constant danger when it came to biting during sex, of being drained dead. Kind of what happened the first time we had fang banger sex. Kind of why the whole aura of danger he carried about him was so true.

  He looked down at me in the dimness of our room and I felt a lurching need to go back to that place we’d been in before all of this chaos had been upon us. Stupid heart of mine.

  His lips kissed the side of my face and trailed their way down my jaw. Stopping to consume my own lips for a heady moment before breaking away and continuing on down my skin. Warming it where ever they went.

  I hadn’t really had time to work through how I was feeling about him trying to kill me. Or if I was to believe Tarin, fake my own death, with no intention of actually killing me.

  Since that fateful night when I’d been so naively and brilliantly duped into thinking I was just doing my usual truth-sayer espionage trick, time had not slowed down and those that wanted me dead or just wanted a piece of me for whatever reasons they had, had not gone down in numbers. We were on the run because it was all we could do.

  Tarin slid down my body, bringing my breast up to his mouth and licking at the erect nipple there. After running away from everyone one and everything that was apparently after us, we’d fallen into bed together rather exhausted and naked.

  My body was healing well from the last fight I’d been in, with Arlow the unicorn. He’d beaten my body up pretty well, but since I was possessed by my own personal god at the time, he’d suffered a greater beating and retreated quickly.

  We hadn’t seen him yet, but we were bound too. Because we had captured his unicorn horn and from what we could figure out, it was possibly the source of his supernatural power.

  Arlow was a unicorn and an assassin. He wanted me dead with a fiery vengeance, because I was the vessel for the truth-sayer, Asha Vahisita, who was for all intents and purposes, his mother. I had no idea why he wanted his mother dead, but he did. At first, I’d thought Arlow was a good guy. But then I’d figure out he wanted Asha dead enough to ensure that no one else got a hold of her and killed her first, saving me from a vampire’s clutches.

  I kissed Tarin’s mouth and ran my tongue around the inside of his lips, licking his teeth and tonguing his fangs. Tarin moaned loudly and parted my legs quickly. He loved it when I sucked on his highly sensitive fangs. I stopped and grinned at him and Tarin growled back at me.

  “Tease.” He muttered and without warning thrust into me deeply. I gasped and my hips raised up into him before he pulled back out again, fully.

  “I could say the same.”

  I wondered if I would ever get used to how wonderful his body felt when it was joined with mine. I’d had sex before, plenty of it, but I’d never had love, never had passion, never had all of what I had with Tarin. Tarin rolled off me and reached beside the bedside table for the condom packet that lay there, just waiting to be used.

  Turns out, being on the run, isn’t quite like they make it out to be in the movies. We didn’t think anyone was tracking our credit card purchases, so we’d seen no reason not to book ourselves into a motel and rest up for the moment.

  That had been three days ago, and I hadn’t exactly rested. At first, I hadn’t been able to, because of the pain I’d been in with my bruised ribs. Then I hadn’t wanted to. Relaxing was only momentarily, and it was done when Tarin distracted me enough through sex, to forget about our problems.

  I watched Tarin work the condom down onto his cock before sliding back over to me. “Now, Ms Phoenix, it’s time for your relaxation therapy.”

  I giggled back at him. How had we gotten to be like this with one another? It was for a sappy word, delightful.

  2

  Ever since the last fight when I’d scrapped through with my life, with some sort of thanks to Asha, as we’d dubbed the god I housed within my body, said god, had been ra
ther absent. I wasn’t sure if she was absent or dormant. It was another reason I was unable to relax so easily.

  I’d never been without Asha in my life. Of course, I hadn’t known until I was fourteen that I even possessed the Asha Vahisita in me. That awakening had been rather rude, violent and brutal and as a result of realizing what I was I’d been all but banished from my own family, forever. Since then, I’d figured out how to control the god inside me.

  I’d worked on the simple principle of only siphoning off her truth sayer abilities to use to my advantage and monetary gain. I tried very hard, not to allow Asha to take me over.

  But recently, I’d had to rely on her to do just that, in order to keep me alive. It was unnerving every time she came to the forefront of me, because the more I allowed Asha out, so to speak, the stronger she seemed. It felt like the scales in our relationship of power and control were changing and I didn’t like it.

  That was why I was now housed up at a motel instead of my own place, that was why Tarin could not return to his mansion that might still be under surveillance by the police for my attempted murder.

  Luckily, we both had money. I had his, for the fake job assignment that had lured me to him in the first place. Tarin had paid me rather well and now I was putting that money to good use.

  Like getting some clean damn clothes, after most of mine had been torn through with bullet holes, ripped apart in fighting or just generally lost. Tarin’s highest priority had been to buy condoms and wine.

  If things didn’t return to normal soon, we’d have to find a better accommodation option than the motel and burning through our financial resources. But for now, it was a time out for us and we both intended to take every advantage of that time out. It was why we’d barely left the bed since we’d arrived at the motel.

  But now I was up for moving and a shower. I sighed and enjoyed the heavenly feel of the warm water of the shower’s spray hitting my body.

  “So good.” Reaching for the body wash my hand felt something else, hard and it wasn’t there to get me clean, it was more than likely to make me dirty all over again.