Echo (Fated)

  ECHO

  Liza James

  Contents

  BLURB

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Acknowledgements

  Also by Liza James

  BLURB

  Echoes.

  Screams.

  Mercy.

  Redemption.

  Silence.

  Death.

  Revenge.

  My blood is thick. Swirling under my skin in shallow waves of agony while we’re apart.

  But my need for vengeance is stronger. The hatred I cling to comes easy when my mind lingers on my Fated.

  Amelia. My Millie.

  Nothing can save her now. It’s time to give her exactly what she deserves.

  Author’s Note

  Hi hello, my favorite people. I wanted to give you all a quick warning before you dive into Echo. This little story merges BOTH the Vibe and Fated worlds.

  That means that if you have not read Vibe yet, this story may contain spoilers for Ruby and Aura.

  All right, you’re ready.

  Dive in.

  Chapter One

  Ruby

  “How many times do we have to tell Aura this isn’t a fucking Christmas party?” a low, aggravated male voice sounds from across the line. I know I’ve heard it before, but not often and I can’t remember what this asshole’s name is.

  “Who is that guy again?” I ask, intentionally keeping my voice light while my fingers tighten around the edges of my iPhone. I can hear Stella mumbling an angry response to him while she keeps the phone muted with her hand.

  Aura’s soft fingers quickly wrap around my upper arm as she stands behind me, she rests her head on my shoulder as she quickly mutters, “Leon. That’s Leon.” Her voice is hesitant, because I assume she can sense how annoyed I am.

  She knows me better than anyone.

  I hear Stella sigh into the phone as she returns to our conversation, but just before she can speak, I cut through again. “Leon,” I grind out between clenched teeth. Aura’s hands fall to my waist as she drops her forehead against my back in surrender. “Go ahead and tell Leon that I’ll fucking skin him alive if he talks to Aura like that at this not-Christmas-Christmas party.”

  Stella laughs, a sexy little lilt that leads into a quieter tone, as if she’s remembering something important. “Ignore him, he’s… sick and frustrated.” But there’s something missing from her voice now. The vibrancy she held just a moment ago has disappeared as she mentions Leon’s condition.

  “I don’t give a shit if he broke a leg and lost a limb, he doesn’t talk to my fucking girl—”

  “We will. When is it again, Stella?” Aura interrupts me, her sweet voice sliding across my nerves like the silk it is. God, I want to strangle her for the power she holds over me, and then I want to fuck her for it.

  “Friday night. I’ll send you the address, okay?” I give up and pass the phone to Aura, who steps in easily and finishes the conversation.

  “Perfect,” Aura replies.

  “Oh, and dress up, okay? Make Ruby wear a dress,” Luna chirps in from the background, and I can practically see Aura’s eyes light up with excitement at her demand.

  “Oh fuck no!” I immediately shout, crossing my arms over my chest while Aura leans forward and rests her elbows on our granite counter.

  After we survived our experience at the Nation, we’ve spent the last few months really focusing on ourselves and each other. We are both still working at the club, and it’s the happiest we’ve ever been. No Dom, no guilt ridden regrets and worries of mistakes. Our identities are continuously evolving, and we’re supporting each other through our growth.

  We live in the same apartment complex as before, but we upgraded to a bigger unit. We have a guest bedroom, a more spacious kitchen, a bigger room for a bigger fucking bed. One with four posts and a perfectly placed headboard with these little slats.

  Each one wide enough for a set of cuffs, or rope, or silk, or even chains when—

  "Ruby," Aura's voice interrupts my quickly spiraling thoughts and I immediately start to raise my eyes to meet hers. But they move slowly, deliberately taking in the short sleep bottoms and loose tank she always wears to bed.

  Right before I take them off of her.

  "Mmhmm..." I say, brushing my thumb along my lower lip when I finally meet her gaze. The heat sparks between us. It's always there, this low boil of tension and desire and the need to touch in some way.

  "So, you'll wear a dress then?" She stands upright from leaning against the counter and steps towards me, her hips swaying ever so slightly as she moves. She's taunting me, tempting me with her body while her hands land on my shoulders and gently slide up the sides of my neck.

  "No, absolutely not." I laugh as I drop my hands to her lower back and pull her against me. I know what she's doing. Her lips brush against my jaw and I glide my touch even lower, gripping her ass while I twist us around.

  I lift her up and set her on the counter. Her legs fall open while I step between them, and I press my chest against hers while her fingers tangle in the newly cut strands of my hair. I chopped several inches off, and now it lays a little longer than my shoulders. Definitely not as long as it once was, but I love it like this, and Aura loves the change as well.

  "But you will," I whisper as I wrap my fingers around the base of her jaw and drag her towards me. Her lips brush against mine, slowly at first, while she attempts to hold herself back. But we both know better, she can't get enough of me just as I can't seem to consume enough of her.

  "Yeah?" Her voice is breathy, and she arches her back while my other hand slips up the side of her waist. I dip my fingers underneath the edge of her tank, feeling her heated skin under my eager touch.

  "Yeah." My grip turns harsh, my fingers bite in her flesh while I rake my nails down her stomach. I reach her thigh and release her throat, only to pull her legs farther apart as her body rolls against mine. "Because you're a good girl, right?"

  "I wouldn't say I'm a good girl," she laughs the words, and I slip my hand through the front of her shorts until my knuckles brush along her already wet pussy. She gasps, and her laugh is quickly muted into something so fucking primal that I can't help but lean up and pull her bottom lip into my mouth.

  "Only for me," I remind her with teeth scraping across her skin in painful pleasure. She melts against me and I work my fingers against the thin fabric of her panties. "You burn everything else down, Vibe Girl."

  “Always.”

  Chapter Two

  Leon

  Everything is too fucking loud.

  The constant voices. The reminders. The bond. The pain.

  Satan, the fucking pain is too much.

  I'm starving. Always so goddamn hungry, no matter how often I feed, or who I feed from.

  It's never enough.

  I shut my eyes again as the pulsing throb of hunger radiates through my stomach but lights a burning fire in my chest. I'm always hurting, and being this far from her is a constant injury weakening my usually strong state.

  Never in my life have I ever been this weak. It's as if I can feel her calling to me directly, her voice repeating words I've never heard her say over and over and over again. Echoes of her soul screaming through my blood.

  Help. Save me. I'm begging for it. Kill me.

  But she would never ask for help. I know her better than that. She's a vile, twisted waste of an Angel. Hell, she's a waste of a fucking Demon. If I had only killed her when I first found her again, why the fuck did I hesitate?

  Instead, I was focused on Stel
la and her growth as a newly realized Succubus. I let her distract me from my true intentions, from what I knew I would do once I had found Amelia again.

  For my sister, for Nya, I will slit Amelia's throat and watch her bleed out in front of me. I'll feed from her essence, taking every last ounce of what she has to offer and then Lucifer can finish her off. We'll use every part of her, nothing will go wasted. Not after what she's done to all of us.

  She can feel it, my anger and hatred through the bond because her response is just as poisonous. It's everything between us, a constant war of toxicity between her own hatred and need for destruction against mine.

  I'll take your sins, baby. The Demon I am finds beauty in your pain and chaos. A magnificent end to your deliberate malevolence, that's what I'll give you.

  "Where the hell are you, pretty girl?" I grind out in my mind while the icy water rolls across my body. I'm on my back in our bathtub at the home I live in now with Luna and Elijah. Stella and Nathanial come back and forth, but they have their own place hidden away in the city that they can escape to when they aren't reigning over Avernus.

  "Let go, Leon. You know it's the only way you can reach her." Luna's soft voice breaks through my concentration and I flex my fists in irritation.

  "I know how this fucking works, new girl. Have you forgotten I've been a Demon my entire life? I wasn't thrown into it like you were." The second I lose focus, the ice penetrates my mind and reminds me exactly how insanely cold this is. I groan out in both discomfort and frustration. I just need to find her. Then I can get out of this fucking mess.

  "I know, I know," Luna says quietly, slipping back into her usual silence while she sits in the corner and supervises these fucking sessions. We've been doing this for months now—at least ten. I come in here once a day and try to find Amelia in my mind. I focus on our bond, on my undying need to have my hands on her body, around her throat, in her fucking hair.

  I think of my sister, how close we both were to Amelia. I try to remember what our relationship was like when we were kids, when she was Millie... the freely running spirit high on life and discovery.

  Life. She used to love living. She focused her time around plants and animals and little creatures that we usually found trite and disgusting. Not Millie, she was the one saving displaced moles and spiders.

  A searing pain rips through my limbs at those thoughts, flashes of the terrible things Amelia has done replace the nostalgic memories I crave to hold on to. She's reminding me, and I fucking hate her for it. She does this every single fucking time I'm in here.

  She knows I'm trying to find her now. And she doesn't want to surrender.

  I let my head slip under the chilled water, the jagged bits of ice slip over my face and create a silent barrier with the rumbled sound around me. The water flows, sloshing in muted echoes in my ears. Everything gets impossibly darker, an empty abyss while I force my mind to let go of my current reality.

  I need to access the other dimension, where we can find each other outside of the physical world we're in.

  That's exactly when I feel it though, her presence around me. My eyes open within my mind, seeking her out while I know she's finally close. It's been so long, and while I want her blood on my hands, I also want her figure in my vision. I want to see her, meet the eyes that betrayed my sister so viciously; meet the gaze that destroyed the only person I ever cared for.

  "Don't be a coward, Millie. I've been waiting for you."

  Silence. She says nothing, but I know she's here. I can feel the waves of darkness rolling through our blood, inking my skin in her sadistic mark. I step forward in my mind, even though I can't see anything of significance. The ground below me is a reflection, like shallow waves of water showing me only my own, weakly mirrored self. It’s not even a sliver of who I know I can be, if only I was free of this fucking bond.

  "Come on, show me where you are," I spit out, attempting to keep my anger at a somewhat manageable level. But the longer she holds out, the worse I'll become. I can feel it. "I'll save you, Amelia."

  Lies. I'll simply be delivering her a new monster. One that has years of pain and vengeance built within.

  "I don't want to be saved," her voice is weak, but firm. Never giving in, that's like Millie. When she makes a decision, she drowns in it.

  "What if I told you, I have no intentions of being a savior in this?" I say, raising my voice just a bit as I halt my steps. I close my eyes again, willing her to come closer, or for my blood to find her obscure location.

  "I've never thought of you as the savior, Leon. You've always been trouble. Even when we were kids."

  Still, nothing. She's a vague figure of nearness, her pain and emotions amplified, but only barely, though my body instinctually calls to hers. My strength and the ache of being this close sharpens so significantly my breaths fall at a quicker pace.

  More images of what she's done, of my sister, flash through my mind on repeat and I groan out as the pain of remembering rips through me. "Why the fuck do you keep doing this?" I shout, stumbling forward just a bit while my hand clutches my chest.

  It's all too much. Her pain, my own, Nya's; all of it is overwhelming.

  "To remind you of who I am."

  "I fucking remember, bitch." The words slip through gritted teeth and I force my mind to focus on her location again. The quicker I find her, the quicker I can kill her and destroy this sick bond.

  "I'm not redeemable, Leon. You can't save me, you can't change me. There's nothing left inside of me to claim. I'm an empty vessel, built and designed for the chaos I've already created." Satan, she sounds exactly as she says. There's no remorse, no pain, no semblance of humanity left inside of her. She's completely empty. Hell, I don't think she can even feel what they're doing to her anymore.

  "Do you think that's what I want to do for you, Millie? Transform you into some sort of good person?" I speak slowly, centering myself on exactly what I need to find. I'm getting closer to her, even through our bond, through the shell of what she's made of, I'm taking one step nearer. "Let me make things incredibly clear for you, pretty girl. I don't want to save you. I want to slaughter you. I don't want to redeem you, baby. I want revenge for what you've done. I want you to pay, in screams of pain and prayers for death."

  The air turns frigid, but a wash of comforting resolve solidifies on both sides of our bond. We're coming to an agreement here, reaching some sort of solution in the midst of hunting.

  "I want your blood, pretty girl. I'm coming to find you."

  Chapter Three

  Luna

  I gasp as Leon harshly emerges from the icy water, his slick hands frantically grasping the edges of the tub as he breathes. His disheveled hair now hangs over his forehead strands of dripping water. Elijah and I told him to do this without his clothes, honestly. Once he steps out of the tub, the freezing temperature of the water simply makes things worse when his sopping wet outfit clings to him.

  But he refuses. Every single time, he gets in—fully clothed—and then climbs out and instead of turning on a hot shower, he intentionally stays in them. He goes to his room, turns off the light, and sits in the corner while he remains closed off to everything else. It’s as if he likes to rest and revel in the pain, in the freezing temperatures Amelia tends to exemplify. Maybe that’s where he finds his own comfort.

  “Why don’t you take a hot shower this time, Leon?” I start, just as he stands and the water sloshes below him. His black tee clings to his broad chest and rippled abs and I can’t help but admire him. He’s attractive, absolutely. But he’ll never be what Elijah is to me, and the consistent pulse of aching need that flows through my bond reminds me of that.

  “No.” He begins stepping out of the tub and I attempt subtly adjusting the atmosphere with my ability, making things somewhat warmer for him, ideally. But his eyes immediately dart up to mine and his lips pull back over his teeth. “I fucking said, no.”

  Frustration rolls through my chest at his clear dismiss
al of his own health. This isn’t good for him, especially now while he’s already weak and sick.

  Is he being an ass? Elijah’s words radiate through my blood as he speaks. He can feel my own irritation, and he knows how these sessions usually go.

  Always. I respond to him and then I feel our bond flood with understanding. This isn’t anything new, but it continues to hurt us watching him waste away like this.

  “I spoke to her,” Leon’s voice is quiet, but there’s an underlying tone of surprise there as well. My eyes snap up to meet his as he pulls open the bathroom door and steps into the hallway. I immediately follow him, waiting for him to continue sharing.

  “What? You spoke to her? How is she? Where is she?” The questions spill from my mouth quicker than I can control them. I can’t help it, we’ve been searching for months without anything from her. This is the first bit of contact we’ve made. My heart is racing in my chest, and before I know it, I can feel Elijah stalking up behind me. He can feel the change in my energy, in the way my blood is pulsing through my veins.

  Leon doesn’t answer, instead he stays silent and continues his intentional pace through the hallway to his bedroom.

  “Leon.” Elijah’s voice thunders behind me, the heat from his nearness enveloping my colder frame. I try to stay focused on Leon, but being this close to my Fated pulls my attention. A shiver races up my spine as Elijah’s hand falls to rest on my hip, his thumb slips under the edge of my shirt and grazes my skin. Heat, and explosion of sparks in the singular place he touches me. I lean back against him, seeking even more of his touch while my mind races to hear Leon’s response.