Twisted: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy Romance (Goddess Kissed Novel Book 2) Read online

  Twisted

  A Goddess Kissed Novel

  By: Ivy Carter

  Contents

  Twisted

  DEDICATION

  Content Notes

  Prologue.

  Chapter 1.

  Chapter 2.

  Chapter 3.

  Chapter 4.

  Chapter 5.

  Chapter 6.

  Chapter 7.

  Chapter 8.

  Chapter 9.

  Chapter 10.

  Chapter 11.

  Chapter 12.

  Chapter 13.

  Chapter 14.

  Chapter 15.

  Chapter 16.

  Chapter 17.

  Chapter 18.

  Chapter 19.

  Chapter 20.

  Chapter 21.

  Chapter 23.

  Chapter 24.

  Chapter 25.

  Chapter 26.

  Chapter 27.

  Chapter 28.

  Chapter 29.

  The End for Now.

  DEDICATION

  To my love, my biggest fan and my best friend.

  Content Notes

  This book contains strong language, violence, and some sexual overtones. This book also contains dark content in a variety of forms, including depictions of abuse and bullying. It is intended for older teen readers and up.

  Prologue.

  Watching someone you know die changes you. It isn’t like finding out that someone you loved was killed. Getting a phone call telling you that someone is just gone can be traumatized enough… But watching it as it happens, unable to do anything about it, and knowing that it is happening because you either caused it or because of who you are. Now that is real deep seeded pain and trauma. I have always believed that the truth will set you free. That accepting absolute truth is the only way to walk your path through life. But this time…I wish I was blind. Blind to this truth. I wish I could forget what I saw. But then I realize that if I did that, I would lose the very last moment my exquisite friend spent on this earth. I wouldn’t want to erase anything about him. Or his time on this earth. So, I think about that moment often, even when I am advised not to. Even when everyone says that thinking on it too much will eventually drive me to insanity. I will not be blind to him or his last moment of truth. I will live, and I will avenge him. That will save me from insanity.

  Chapter 1.

  Waking up alone after the last couple of weeks of sleeping next to someone takes some time to get used too. Jaxx gas been gone for more than a week. He was summoned to his clan by the ‘Elders’. So of course, he jumps and goes. Without even telling me he is leaving. He left a message for me with Sebastian. No matter how much I might need him right now.

  Things weren’t going that great between us before he decided to sneak out like a thief in the night. We still played our roles. But the little things that made us who we are together were suddenly missing. Gone like so much mist evaporating. Jaxx didn’t go out of his way to touch me every chance that he got. In the days before he left, he had become standoffish. I could feel him withdrawing from me. I had no idea how to lure him back to me. I tried everything that I could think of. He had pulled away from me and our relationship. I started planning for us to go away together. Just by ourselves for a few days. I started pulling myself out of the shadows of my grief. I couldn’t lose my mate as well as my best friend. But all my plans fell by the wayside. Like heaps of rotting trash, the morning that I woke alone with Jaxx’s name still whispering on my lips.

  It has only been two weeks since Devon was slain right in front of my eyes. The nightmares of that night still haunt me every time I close my eyes. I wake up in a cold sweat with our silk sheets sticking to my body. Tears are a common thing after these nightmares. The nightmares didn’t start until Jaxx left me behind for his ‘secretive’ clan business. Now when I wake in a panic, I reach over hoping to find him there just for once. But all I encounter is emptiness. That vacant, cold spot sleeping beside me, only adds to the growing void inside me.

  I shift in my bed trying to find a comfortable spot but going to back to sleep now seems to be useless. Swinging my lets over the side of the bed while pulling the sticky sheets from my body is not one of my favorite morning activities. I get out of bed and pad over to the wardrobe and grab my robe. I debate grabbing Jaxx’s rob instead since it smells of him. Maybe drawing a little comfort from that. But the thought of being reduced to that is just infuriating. There is so much anger driving through my veins lately that it has been hard to keep a hold of my temper. When my temper flares it’s even harder to control my powers.

  I don my robe while walking over to the French doors that lead to the balcony. It wraps the whole second story of Gavin’s cabin. It’s barely five in the morning and the sunrise is still away off. So instead of sitting out on the balcony and brooding. I decide to head downstairs and see if anyone else is up. There is a good chance that there is, seeing as we have two Vampires in residence as well. After making sure that my robe is secure, and nothing is going to be peeking out of the lapels. I open the door and check the hallway. All the wards I have set around the parameter of the cabin seem to be still undisturbed. Sebastian keeps telling me that I am over doing it on the security. But he wasn’t there when the High Demon Lord threatened to find a way to come back for me. I hear that threat every night in my dreams. It’s a reminder enough.

  Once I reach the downstairs landing, I hear voices coming from the kitchen. But they aren’t the voices that I was expecting to be milling about this time of night. Gavin is on his phone talking to someone in a very biting tone. I can pick up a few words from the other person on the line, but I don’t recognize the voice.

  “You are not the one that has gotten woken by her screams every morning this week. You need to tell him that he is needed here.” He pauses as the person on the other line says something that I can’t catch. “Nothing is more important than his fated mate. You be sure and tell that bastard that!” Gavin shouts the last line into the phone. Then he further surprises me by throwing the phone so hard that is smashes to tiny pieces of wires and plastic when it hits the wall.

  “I didn’t know I was waking people with my screams.” I tell him in a monotone voice as I make my way into the Kitchen. I shake my head fighting back pitiful angry tears. “I didn’t know I was screaming out loud at all.”

  Gavin jumps down from the kitchen counter that he had been sitting on and comes over and wraps me into a hug. I feel so weak right now from being away from Jaxx that my body automatically connects with my twins. I start to suck some of his energy from him transferring it into myself. I try to pull back from him. But he just pulls me into his embrace, holding me even more tightly.

  “You can take what you need from me Ells.” He tells me in a whisper while stroking my hair. “You are my soul twin, we shared a womb, life, and blood. We can share this now.” I feel tears start to soak the front of his tank top he is wearing along with his flannel pajama pants. When I start to feel more myself, I force my way out of his embrace. I hate seeing that haggard look on his face when we transfer energies. It always takes so much out of him to help keep me going.

  “Gavin!” I gasp out as soon as I see his face. His eyes have sunken in and he now looks like he hasn’t slept in days. “Are you okay?” He just smiles and shakes his head as if he is dismissing my concern.

  “Perfectly fine sister mine.” He chuckles. “I just need to head back to bed here in a minute. But before I do we need to talk.” This has an ominous feel to it. I follow his example and
sit my ass down onto a stool. I fold my hands together onto top of the counter and wait for him to drop some more shit onto my plate.

  “What is it?” I know he can hear the worry in my tone.

  “I called one of my contacts in Jaxx’s clan. I don’t think he will be coming back here anytime soon.” He shakes his head when he sees that I am fighting back tears once again. WTF? He is weird as hell and then he leaves. He hasn’t called me since he has been gone. Now I must hear from my brother that he might not be back for a while?

  “How long is a while?” I ask with trepidation in my tone.

  “I really have no idea. What I do know is that they didn’t seem very susceptive to my warnings that you both can’t be separated for long periods of time.” This shit again?

  “Do you know why he had to go?” He responds by simply shaking his head in the negative.

  “Now tell me about these dreams that you have been having night after night?” Wow that is straight out of left field. But I decide to be completely honest. No more hiding this. It is starting to scare me too much.

  “I don’t think that they are normal nightmares.” When Gavin starts to respond I hold up my hand so he will let me finish. “I think the Demon Lord is communicating with me through my dreams. I keep experiencing Devon’s death over and over again. I know that is normal. But the way I am seeing it isn’t from my point of view. It’s from his.” When Gavin just sits there staring at me with widened eyes. I whisper out the last part that is freaking me out the most.

  “I wake up with the taste of Devon’s blood in my mouth and I love it so much that it makes me want to retch.”

  “So he has formed some kind of link with your psyche. We need to inform Sebastian of this. He might know of something we can do to break this link.” I just nod and lay my head on top of my folded arms that are resting on the counter in front of me.

  “Okay, I am going to walk my tired ass back to my bed. Wake me up after Sebastian gives you a proper thrashing.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask his retreating back. The only response that I get is his damned chuckling.

  I sigh and decide to get up and make some coffee. But before I can even move my ass off the stool my phone starts to ring. I hurriedly reach for it inside my robe pocket. Hoping against hope that it is Jaxx calling me. I read the screen and let out a defeated sigh.

  “Hello?” I answer trying to infuse happiness into my voice. Hiding the feeling of defeat currently plaguing me.

  “Good you are awake.” Comes Sebastian’s chipper voice over the phone. He is truly a changed man since he has gotten Jessa back. They have been spending every minute together getting to know each other.

  “What’s the deal Sebastian? Why are you calling me so early?” I pause and look around. “Why are you calling me at all? You live here too.”

  “Just be a good love and bring me some coffee when you meet me in the clearing in ten minutes.” He again replies in a chipper voice. I can hear Jessa laughing in the background. It is so good to hear her laugh after everything that she has been put through these past weeks. Sebastian truly is good for her.

  “Eh?” I respond not really looking forward to whatever he has planned for me.

  “Time to learn how to physically defend yourself.” I pout…”Now don’t pout dearling. You will get to play with sharp shiny things.”

  “Hey! How did you know I was pouting?” He chuckles and drops the line. What is it with people laughing at me this morning?

  Onto other thoughts… I need to find a way to sustain my energy levels alone. Especially since it looks like Jaxx has forgotten me for the moment. Again with these damn tears. I am stronger than this! Before it is time to meet Sebastian in the clearing. I need to go and check my mother’s book. Maybe find a way to draw energy from nature. But would that be enough to keep my power sources up to full par? Only one way to find out.

  I slide off the stool and head for the stairs. I really need to talk to Gavin about putting in heated floors. It’s freezing against my bare feet. As I am heading up the stairs, I start to hear the whispers of the blood scribe that wrote my mother’s book. He likes to whisper the answers to my magical problems to me. It has saved my life more than once. I have also learned more from that one book than any other I have studied about this new life I have started.

  A new life that I shouldn’t have to walk through alone. ”Jaxx why aren’t you here when I need you so much?” I whisper to the wind around me.

  Chapter 2.

  Sitting on the floor with the Blood Scribe’s book in my lap I finally come across a spell on how to draw energy from nature to sustain your own. It will feel good to become totally self-sufficient again. I read the words written in the crusty brown rolling script. I feel like I am chanting forever before I start to feel something happening. Then just nothing. Nothing at all.

  “What am I missing?” I fairly shout out to the room around me in annoyance.

  That is when the whispering started up again. You do not have to chant something into existence. Close your eyes and concentrate. Will what you are wanting to be into existence. Utter these simple words. ‘SO I will it, So mote it be…’ Concentrate with all your strength…

  Damn thing could have told me before I sit here for over thirty minutes ignoring an increasingly irritated Sebastian. So all I have to is will it to be. I wish I knew what that meant. Maybe I should try it the first time when I am surrounded by nature? I jump up as soon as the inspiration strikes me. I rush from the room and down the stairs without even thinking about changing out of my robe into something decent to train in.

  I am so excited about maybe not feeling rundown tomorrow morning that I accidentally flash to the clearing before I am halfway down the stairs. The next thing I know I am standing in nothing but my underthings in the middle of the clearing outside of my brother’s home. The grass is still wet beneath my bare feet. I give a silent shiver from the cold morning air. Jessa is standing about ten feet away from me with a look of horrified enchantment on her face. Sebastian has turned his back to me to and is continuously clearing his throat. Gavin isn’t present thank the Goddess. But there is a new person that I recognize that is openly checking me out. The Reaper. I don’t remember his name… Tristan. That was it. I don’t bother to cover myself, but I can feel a full body flush coming on.

  “What in the Goddess’s name is going on Ella? You can’t train with sharp objects in the buff?” Sebastian yells at me with his back still turned. His voice is disgruntled and mortified. That is when Jessa loses it. She just busts out laughing like I haven’t heard in way too long.

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind watching her move in the…” The Reaper breaks off with a disgruntled sound. I look over and see Jessa behind Tristan. She is pulling him back by his jet black hair wrenching his head to the side. Her very feminine but razor sharp fangs are a hair’s breadth from puncturing his jugular.

  “Watch what you say, Reaper. That is my sister you are ogling.” She hisses through her fangs.

  One minute the Reaper was there the next the both are wrapped in shadows. Once the black shroud has cleared Jessa is standing in the same place with a flummoxed look on her face. The Reaper flashes in behind her and she doesn’t even notice. I am about to scream out a warning, but he just taps on her on the shoulder yells IT, and she just giggles. Sebastian still has his face turned from me but I can tell he has another disgruntled look on his face.

  “No flirting my woman, Reaper.” Sebastian yells out in mock anger. Okayyyy. Some people have gotten closer than I had realized.

  “Well since it’s a tad cold out here. So why don’t you go and put some clothes on Ells.” She starts laughing again when Sebastian just grunts once more.

  Will it to be, and it will be… The whispers start in my head once more. I close my eyes and screw them shut tightly and concentrate on what I would like to be wearing. I can feel fabric start to slide against bare chilled skin. I picture myself inside my head we
aring Capri style track pants, a black tank top, a black hoodie with a red hood, and black trainers. When I open my eyes and look down, I am wearing exactly what I had pictured in my head.

  When I look around the occupants in the clearing once more… They are all staring at me with their mouths hanging open.

  “What?” I ask innocently looking around at them. Sebastian clears his throat and shakes his head.

  “I don’t know why it still amazes me when you do something new, Ells.” Jessa hops up and down whooping loudly. Then she starts to gush. She is so much like her old self it still astonishes me how quickly she is bouncing back. It must be the time she is spending with Sebastian.

  “That’s my girl!” She shouts to the forest surrounding us… “MY GIRL!” I just start giggling at her antics.

  “Well that is something… Where did you learn to do that, lass?” Tristan didn’t bother hiding his curiosity.

  “Blood Scribe.” I answer simply, enjoying the look of astonishment on the Mr. Reaper’s face.

  He just walks off toward some practice targets and various sharp and pointy weapons that I am just now noticing have been set around the clearing. The targets vary in sizes. Some as small as a dinner plate colored in multiple red and white circles. Some are made from straw and as tall as I am.

  “So what are all the targets for?” I ask everyone in general.

  “Your thrashing, sister dearest.” I hear my brother’s laughing but weakened response as he walks up behind me. He gives me a quick one armed hug and walks over to Sebastian. They start to whisper quietly at first, then things look like they are starting to get heated. That’s when I really look at Gavin’s face. He still looks haggard. I guess he wasn’t able to sleep. Or he is worried about something. Whatever he and Sebastian are talking about seems to be pissing Sebastian off.

  But it is my brother’s appearance that scares me the most. Not Sebastian’s anger. I need to try the spell of self-sustainment again.