Seduced by Power (The Seduced Saga Book 3) Read online

  Seduced by Power

  (The Seduced Saga, Book 3)

  Alex Lux

  Daring Books

  AlexLuxBooks.com

  Copyright © 2013 Alex Lux

  Cover Art Copyright © 2015 Dmytry Karpov

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Interior by Karpov Kinrade

  Proofread by Brittany Carrigan

  Edited by Anne Chaconas

  eBook License Notes

  You may not use, reproduce or transmit in any manner, any part of this book without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews, or in accordance with federal Fair Use laws. All rights are reserved.

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  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – I Am in Blood - Rose

  Chapter 2 – Fear Thy Nature - Rose

  Chapter 3 – The Mind's Construction - Rose

  Chapter 4 – As a Man - Blake

  Chapter 5 – The Taste of Fears - Derek

  Chapter 6 – My Black and Deep Desires - Rose

  Chapter 7 – The Seeds of Time - Derek

  Chapter 8 – The Grief that Does Not Speak - Rose

  Chapter 9 – The Firstlings of My Heart - Blake

  Chapter 10 – Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble - Rose

  Chapter 11 – Darkness Tell Us Truths - Rose

  Chapter 12 – Courage - Rose

  Chapter 13 – The Wine of Life - Rose

  Chapter 14 – What's Done is Done - Derek

  Chapter 15 – Daggers in Men's Smiles - Rose

  Chapter 16 – Something Wicked This Way Comes - Rose

  Chapter 17 – Blood Will Have Blood - Rose

  Chapter 18 – Fair is Foul - Blake

  Chapter 19 – I Dare Do All - Derek

  Chapter 20 – Our Fears Do Make Us - Rose

  Chapter 21 – The Devil Speak True - Derek

  Chapter 22 – Vaulting Ambition - Rose

  Chapter 23 – Come, You Spirits - Derek

  Chapter 24 – The Innocent Flower - Blake

  Chapter 25 – To Throw Away the Dearest Thing - Rose

  Chapter 26 – Angels are Bright - Rose

  Chapter 27 – Chance May Crown Me - Derek

  Chapter 28 – End All - Rose

  Chapter 29 – Fair is Foul – The Beast

  About Alex Lux

  About Seduced by Power

  Their passion will destroy them.

  Only true love can save them.

  This is the third book in The Seduced Saga (a 5 book series).

  You can find Seduced by Innocence and Seduced by Pain on Amazon.

  Forbidden passions.

  Deadly secrets.

  A love that will stand against it all.

  In Seduced by Power, Rose and Derek face the greatest threat to their love, and lives, as they are forced to make painful choices to save those they love the most.

  They give everything they have to end the battle against Rose's mother and retrieve that which was stolen from them. But will it be enough to save them?

  ***

  New Adult Romance, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

  Recommended for 17+, contains explicit sexual content.

  ONE

  I Am in Blood

  ROSE

  I am in blood

  Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,

  Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

  — William Shakespeare, Macbeth

  Dear Diary,

  Some memories should never be allowed to take root in our minds.

  Some days should never greet the sun.

  Some moments should never be lived.

  HANDCUFFS BIT INTO my wrists, pinching the tender skin. I blinked, but saw only black as my eyelashes brushed around the dark cotton covering my eyes. Loud music filled the room, drowning out any other noise, making it impossible to hear where he was. The sheet concealing my naked body had been pulled back, exposing my spread legs and hard nipples. I yanked at the cuffs tightened around my ankles and felt them bite into me.

  Pain. I need more pain. I struggled, yanking my wrists until they bruised, kicking my legs until the metal cut me.

  The leather whip landed against my thigh, and a wave of light burst through my mind as the pain pushed at my power, feeding it.

  I tried to ask for more, but a gag blocked my tongue. Instead I moaned and pulled at my chains harder. Deprived of sight, of movement, of the ability to talk, I was at his mercy. We’d never taken it this far, but I needed it and Derek knew it.

  Somehow, this dark sexual game fed us both. His alpha core responded to the control, the implied ownership of my submission. My power needed more to stay satiated and safe, to allow us this contact.

  Another slap of the leather. My body arched, and I groaned again. There would be marks from this, I knew. He comforted me with a feather over the line of pain, blending it with pleasure, confusing my senses. As his teeth bit down on one nipple, his fingers dipped between my legs, teasing at the wet, swollen nub of flesh there.

  Pain. Pleasure. Ecstasy. They swirled inside of me, claiming me.

  His strong naked body, skin hot to the touch, pressed against me.

  As I came, he released my bounds, freed me from my restraints and then slammed his hard cock into me, splitting me in two as my limbs came back to life, nerve endings on fire.

  My hips rose to meet his, legs locked around him, arms pulling him closer. Our lips met, tongues exploring each other as bodies merged into one. My nails dug into his back, returning some of the pain he’d given me. He slammed me harder, deeper, his cock filling me, stretching me, going so deep.

  His hard chest pressed against my breasts, muscles flexing with the effort of fucking me.

  We came together this time, exploding in a rainbow of light, a shower of explosive sensation.

  “I love you, Rose. Forever.”

  My heart burst with emotion, with the love I felt for him. Overpowering. All consuming. The kind of forever love that was impossible to describe. Tears clogged my throat. “I love you, too, Derek.”

  A final thrust and he collapsed on me.

  Orgasms pulsed through me in waves, his cock still hard inside me as his lips grazed my collarbone.

  Love. Connection. The incredible bliss of being one with the man I loved more than life consumed me.

  Then. Something.

  Darkness.

  Fear.

  Panic.

  When my power pushed forward, still hungry, still demanding, I tried to push him off of me.

  My heart, already beating hard, stalled, skipping beats, losing its rhythm.

  No. No. NoNoNoNo!

  I screamed his name, then bit my wrist until I could taste my own blood, but the pain wasn’t enough anymore.

  He looked down at me, confusion clouding his beautiful blue eyes. Then, awa
reness dawned, but it was too late. My power held onto him and wouldn’t let go.

  I finally pushed him off of me and threw myself off the bed, away from his flesh, away from all contact, but it didn’t matter.

  A dark band of energy connected us, and I could see my demon within sucking out his life.

  “No! No. Stop. Not Derek. No!”

  I reached for the scissors on the desk in our room and used the sharp side to dig into my thigh until blood pooled out. “Use my pain. Please. Leave him alone. Feed on this.”

  I cut and cut, but I couldn’t break the band of power between us. The scissors, slick with blood, slipped from my hands and fell to the ground just as Derek collapsed on the bed, his eyes clouded with white, his face lifeless. Dead.

  I thought I knew pain, thought I’d felt it when Mother betrayed me and planned my death.

  When Sandy died and her puppies were slaughtered.

  When Derek and I broke up.

  When I’d robbed his brother of his soul.

  But nothing could have prepared me for this kind of pain.

  The kind of pain that tears out your soul and leaves you an empty husk.

  The kind that gnaws its way into you, eating through everything and never leaving.

  The kind that steals your breath and clenches your heart until you think you’re going to die.

  The kind that comes from killing the man you love.

  TWO

  Fear Thy Nature

  ROSE

  Yet do I fear thy nature;

  — William Shakespeare, Macbeth

  TWO DAYS EARLIER

  Dear Diary,

  I sit by Dean's bed every day and read to him from his favorite books. I don't know if he can hear me, but I hope, wherever his soul is trapped, that something of the love we all have for him is bleeding through.

  His eyes are dead and his body is dying. I don't know how much longer he can hold on.

  Where will his soul rest if his body dies now?

  Will we lose even that part of him to the hell that helped spawn me?

  THE GENTLE THRUM of Silent Night played in the background and snow blanketed the world in white as warm flames blazed in the stone fireplace. It could have been a scene stolen from a Norman Rockwell painting, if not for the slowly dying Druid shifter upstairs and the restless pacing of Derek in front of me.

  I hung another layer of lights on the Christmas tree and Lauren, my future mother-in-law, passed out gingerbread cookies and hot cider.

  Derek hadn’t been much help in our plan to inspire Christmas cheer, and Tammy sat on the loveseat flipping through a book on demonology. We’d all spent countless hours trying to find a way to use my powers to bring Dean back from the demon dimension I’d sent him to, but we’d found nothing helpful.

  Mother and the whole coven, my sister and Blake included, had disappeared, the property vacated and litters of pups abandoned. We’d managed to place them quickly in new homes, my heart breaking at the thought of them being left like that.

  We needed Christmas. We needed cheer and hope and the promise of something good in our lives, but the dark circles under everyone’s eyes spoke of long, sleepless nights. Even Lauren, who wore the mask of Christmas fun, looked strained.

  Tammy threw the book down on the couch. “Why are we wasting time eating cookies and stringing lights when every day Dean gets weaker without the roses? We have to find the witches, or he’ll be the first to die.”

  I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be for her to watch her twin brother fade away, and I had no idea how she could still like me, knowing I was the reason he suffered. Maybe I didn’t have a right to speak up, but that didn’t stop me. “We’re all working hard to find the coven and save Dean. And we’ll keep trying. Keep looking. But we can’t stop living. We need family and we need rest. You all are about to collapse on your feet.”

  Lauren sat next to her daughter. “Rose is right. We’re never going to give up, but there’s nothing more we can do at the moment. Be with us tonight, Tammy. Let’s just take one night to be grateful for what we still have.”

  Tammy pushed against her mom and stood to pace. “I have to keep looking, Mom. I can feel him dying. He won’t last much longer.” Her words choked out of her and Lauren’s face crumbled, her mask slipping to reveal the pain she carried.

  It only took her a moment to slip the mask back on.

  “We’ll save him," Lauren assured her. "I promise.”

  I hoped we could all keep that promise, but as the winter solstice approached, it looked less and less likely. No one knew the full consequences of what would happen if the power of the roses transferred to Mother, but we knew enough to fear it.

  Not only would Mother become more dangerous, but the process would weaken and possibly destroy the Druids. I could lose my entire family in one night, if we didn’t stop them.

  Frustrated, I threw up another string of lights.

  The tree, at least eight feet tall, swayed as I stretched to get the decorations higher. Derek pressed his muscular body against my back to steady me, then reached up to wrap them around the top of the tree. His lips grazed my cheek, and a flash of heat burned through my chest.

  "Careful," Derek whispered against my ear, his breath hot on my skin. "Don't want my future wife impaled by a Christmas tree. That’s my job."

  I turned to face him, our bodies still so close I could feel his heartbeat, my cheeks burning from embarrassment. “Your mom and sister are standing across the room.”

  “I know. And I’m pretty sure they heard your screams last night, but they don’t care. They’re just glad we’re happy. I know this is hard for you, that you feel guilty, but it’s not your fault. No one here blames you.”

  Before I could die from the thought of his family hearing us have sex, he stole a kiss, silencing my mind as my body’s needs took over. He tasted of apples and caramel, and I wished we could stay lost in the bliss of that touch forever.

  All too soon he pulled back.

  I reached for him. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head, an odd look on his face. “Nothing. Must have just been a muscle spasm. Here, let me help you.”

  We went through the motions of putting up the lights, hanging the ornaments and lighting candles around the room. From the outside, the scene must have seemed idyllic, but a restless energy moved under the surface, refusing to let any of us celebrate in peace.

  David, Derek’s father and leader of the Druids, walked in holding a large, dusty codex. “Rose, I think I may have found something that can help us.”

  He offered me the book, but I hesitated. I hated facing the demon part of myself that I’d only recently discovered, and I wondered if David saw that demon side when he looked at me.

  I took the book carefully. The brown pages crinkled from age and appeared as if they’d turn to dust if I touched them. A thick leather cover, with gold-embossed ancient writing, bound the book. As I opened it to the bookmarked page, the metal clasp clinked against itself.

  The handwritten text was so tiny it was more like smudge marks than words. My eyes strained to read the text when the doorbell rang.

  My heart pounded in my chest. We weren’t expecting company, and the O’Conner mansion wasn’t the kind of house people stopped by casually. Not with an imposing metal gate at the front of the property, followed by a long, winding dirt driveway that led through the woods to the front door.

  Derek locked eyes with me. “I’ll get it.”

  I tried to focus on the book in my hands, tried to decipher the words, but my attention wandered to muffled voices from the entryway. A half-hearted perusal of the ancient codex showed enough nightmarish pictures to keep me up for a week. Stopping on one page, a wolf with a snake’s tail growled at me, its eyes menacing and teeth dripping with what seemed like blood. On another page, a horned demon with claws for hands and a boar’s face stared at me as if it would leap out at any moment and eat my heart. I flipped past it, heart pounding as I
tried to convince myself it was just a picture.

  A woman faced me now, her eyes wide and inviting, her lips swollen with lust, breasts large and prominent. Tiny horns poked through her forehead, surrounded by long wavy hair. She had dark wings, like a bat’s, and a tail that curved around her. Her power pulsed in the pages, sending waves of desire through me. She was a succubus, a demon created to seduce men and feed off of them during intercourse, leaving them dead.

  My mouth dried out and my hands shook as I read about her powers, powers that resembled mine. Was this what I did to people? To Derek? Was this kind of demon lurking in me, waiting to strike at the man I loved?

  Derek hurried back into the room, and I slammed the book closed, coughing on a cloud of dust that rose from it.

  “Rose!” Derek’s voice had an urgency to it.

  “Yes.” I tried to focus, to bring my mind back to this room, this house, and away from the nightmares I’d been drawn to.

  “You need to come to the door. Your sister’s here.”

  THREE

  The Mind's Construction

  ROSE

  There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.

  — William Shakespeare, Macbeth

  WATER DRIPPED FROM Jasmine’s short brown hair as she shivered on the front porch, her backpack at her feet. Her pale skin and hazel eyes with smudged mascara made her face look haunted, fragile.

  For all her teenage attitude and sauciness, she was still just my little sister. I pulled her into a hug. “Jasmine, I’ve missed you. I’m so glad you’re here, but how…?”