Page 81 of Mortal Desires

I hated the smile he sent his daughter. I hated the way she shook when he talked. I knew everything that was there to know about Pilar Morales, and I knew even though her father was Adrian, killing him was the most difficult thing she had ever done. All the sisters felt that way. They did it out of necessity, self-defense, but the Morales sisters weren’t murderers.

“He never bled?” I asked Pilar.

She shook her head.

“Loophole,” Cassandra sang.

It wasn’t exactly a loophole. The girls thought that banishing someone was the same as killing them. In the end, he did go to the underworld, so in a way they were right. Still, to completely kill someone you had to damage their earthly body beyond repair and that never happened. Whether Cassandra realized that or Adrian always knew was irrelevant. I could fill in the rest of the gaps.

If Adrian wasn’t completely dead, it meant he could go up the tunnels, and Cassandra could follow him to the surface.

It also meant now we needed to kill him properly. I hoped Pilar wasn’t squeamish, because I planned to kill her father and make him bleed.

As my mind raced with possibilities a surge of power filled the room. For a second I watched Cassandra, wondering what she was doing. Warm powerful light danced around the room, something so pure I knew it could only come from my wife.

She chanted under her breath, a spell I couldn’t understand. Her hands closed tightly and she looked beautifully angry. Jaw set, legs apart, this whole thing broke something inside her and she started to wish for blood as much as I did.

Cassandra and Adrian stepped away, not sure what was happening. Pilar’s eyes never left her father, her face determined as the power gathered around her.

Suddenly all the glass windows exploded at once, shards going everywhere. I stepped in front of Pilar, taking the brunt on my back.

She never spared me a look; she wasn’t here anymore.

I finally heard the words coming out of her mouth, the names of her sisters, her mother, and grandmother. She chanted the names of the Morales coven, going back to Juana, the first Morales to tap into magic.

I turned back to our enemies, satisfied when I found terror on Cassandra’s features. The wind whipped around the warehouse, whistling over our ears, but I still heard perfectly when Cassandra screamed at Adrian, “You said we only needed to worry about Elisa! You said Pilar was nothing.”

What a stupid dumbfuck.

My wife was everything.

She was terror.

She was justice.

She was the rightful Queen of the underworld and the light of the souls.

And I never loved her more than at that very moment.

Fear looked good on Adrian. He stepped back without replying to Cassandra, and when the last surge of power almost knocked him off his feet, I could see he was ready to run.

It took me a second to realize Pilar broke the salt line. She marched their way, and I followed, not wanting her to get her hands dirty. I’d be the muscle she needed.

Adrian turned to flee the second he saw what was happening, while Cassandra came to us with a snarl and a curse on her lips.

My hands closed on Adrian’s collar before he got a chance to run. He looked small and stupid, struggling in my hold.

On my side, Pilar advanced on Cassandra, grabbing the woman by the hair and twisting it on her wrist. “You fucking bitch,” I heard her say.

Adrian had a knife on him that I didn’t know about until it was lodged in my shoulder. I laughed before I removed it, the black goo not even dripping. The man in front of me swallowed slowly.

“You forget I’m a god, mortal,” I sneered.

He would never forget that again.

“Give it to me.” Pilar took the knife from my hands, a psychotic smile on her lips.

I opened my mouth to say I’d gladly kill them both so she’d never need to bloody her hands when my wife pierced Cassandra’s neck.

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