by Heather Long
When the last body dropped, I faced the dragon again. He’d been at our backs the whole time, and while he could have burned us, he hadn’t. He stared steadily, and I passed the blade to Rogue.
“I am going to remove the spear,” I informed him as I moved with purpose in his direction. “It won’t heal as it is, and you won’t be able to get off the ground.”
Dragons were formidable creatures, but they were more vulnerable on the ground. The beast’s pain beat at me. I could smell it in the air and feel it in the thunder of his pulse. When the dragon made no threatening move, I darted forward and gripped the spear. With a yank, it came free.
He roared, and my heart ached for him. I wanted to put a hand on him to help, but I had to move to avoid the snap of the damaged wing and the clack of his teeth coming together mere inches from my head.
Not a real attack. A warning.
“You’re going to want to keep him, aren’t you?” Rogue asked, his tone dry, and I shrugged.
In truth, I’d only wanted to help him. If he wanted to be a companion, I would not be opposed. “I think he likes me,” I said with a grin, and Rogue laughed.
“I like you, didn’t stop me from wanting to kill you.”
This was true.
“Then you and he should get along well.” I clapped Rogue on the shoulder. “Clean up the bodies, or leave them for him to eat?”
We eyed each other, then the dragon, who stared at us a moment. When he dipped his head to the bodies, I swore he smiled.
“Let him eat,” Rogue agreed with me, and we withdrew to give him space.
Fingers in my hair tugged me away from his throat, and I met Alfred’s dark gaze. Though his eyelids were half-lowered as though he was sleepy, I couldn’t look away from the dangerous intensity housed there. The feeling of battle still surged in my veins, and the pleasure at saving such a magnificent beast.
Maddox.
He’d saved Maddox.
He’d saved Rogue, too. That was different in some ways. He’d saved Rogue for himself as much as for Rogue. But Maddox? He’d fought to get to him. Fought to keep him alive. Seeing him in the sun was so different from seeing him in the prison. He’d been majestic and proud. My heart wrenched to see him so hurt.
I licked my lips and then kissed Alfred. He let out a hum of approval as his tongue swept against mine. I lapped at the taste of my blood in his mouth while his coated mine. It was the strangest sensation and so absolutely right in the same breath.
The stroke of his hands along my sides had me arching, his cock nestled against my labia, already slick from how wet I was, and I ground against him. His chuckle vibrated through me as he fisted my hair tighter, the tug lighting up my whole scalp. The desire eddied there, a constant thrum against my senses, but it wasn’t hunger but true want. True need. I sucked against his tongue and dug my fingers into his shoulders.
When he rolled me over, I wrapped my legs around him, arching upward to tease along his thickening girth. Breaking the kiss, he nipped at my lower lip, and I groaned.
“Do you want this, hellion?” The question startled me. “Do you want me? Or are you responding to your hunger?”
Hurt struck like a slap, and I blinked. I wasn’t hungry at all, but he was like holding onto a storm, all sizzling zaps to my senses, and he’d saved Maddox. I wanted…
“Shh,” he shushed me with a nuzzling kiss that took him to my ear and then to my throat. “I have to know, because I will not take from you as the little coward did.” The press of his lips ghosting over the marks he’d made had me shuddering. “I will wipe him from you, but you have to want me to be in my bed.”
Wasn’t I already in his bed? Despite my best efforts, the words wouldn’t leave my tongue. The graze of his teeth had me clawing at his back as the panic bubbled up inside of me. Darkness edged my vision, and Alfred sighed.
Had I disappointed him? Fuck. Why did I care?
“When I get my hands on that demon, I’m going to have his entrails for garters.” With that cryptic, if brutal statement, he bit me again, and this time I didn’t pretend not to scream. It was like I was being burned from the inside out as he began to suck. The pleasure faded entirely to pain.
We were standing on the beach. The house was above, but I didn’t look there, I kept my gaze on the water. “You keep killing me.” It had taken me a moment to put it together, but the agony racing through my veins before clarified it.
“Yes,” he told me. Well, at least he didn’t sugarcoat it. “You don’t want me to make it sweet.”
I almost laughed. Twisting, I met his dark-eyed gaze. I really couldn’t tell if his eyes were that dark because he was full of shit, or if his pupils had swallowed the irises. The corners of his mouth tipped up. “Why?”
“Because, Hellion…” He said the nickname like he had Fiona, and it sent a shudder through my whole system. “You fed on a shadow demon for weeks. You never fully transitioned. You basically slowed your own death, but death comes for everyone.”
“So you’re killing me? How does that logic work?”
“I’m turning you. I’m clearing away the stamp of the fool who tried to and the taint of the shadow demon who wanted to own you.”
Anger flash-fired through me.
“Have no fear, Hellion. No one else will be able to claim you.” He stroked a finger down my cheek.
“Except you.”
“Except us,” he corrected. “Fin is right. You do belong to us, but we also belong to you.”
I rolled my eyes and jerked away from his touch. “I didn’t ask any of you for this.”
“I know.”
“But you’re doing it anyway.”
“I can’t let you die.” The admission should make me feel something. Wanted. Needed. But all it made me feel was…
“That isn’t your decision to make.” I glared at him, and he gave me another of those faint smiles. It didn’t quite reach his eyes though.
“It is very much my decision,” he said. “As modern people are fond of saying, the buck stops here. I will make sure you have what is due you. The vengeance on those who harmed you.”
“I can get that on my own.”
“I have no doubt.” At least he sounded like he meant that part. “Just as I have no doubt that I will very much enjoy helping you. The crimes done to you are numerous, and no one hurts what is mine.”
I moved away from him, but I couldn’t escape. He was there, like a shadow in my step. A pulse under my skin. He was pulling all the blood from my body.
Again.
“The pain is real,” he murmured. “I can block most of it. But this is the best way to ease your transition.”
“Wow, I’d hate to see the hard way.”
He didn’t comment. I focused on the ocean, on the foam of the sea as it rolled in and how the air tasted. I loved the ocean so much.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do you love the ocean?”
“Can you at least pretend to not read my mind?”
“Not right now, no,” he said. “I am taking all of you into me, and then I am having you take me into you. You will know me as intimately as I know you when we are done.”
Resentment sliced through me. “You turned Rogue without his permission.”
“He hated me for a long time.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because he was my friend, and I did not want him to die.”
“But he didn’t want to live like this.” Did Rogue and I have that in common? And I thought he was such an asshole to me.
“No,” Alfred admitted, moving to stand next to me. I was tempted to lean my head against his shoulder, but I resisted it.
Barely.
“He didn’t think it natural. Elves are—they are very attuned to nature. He was—is a frost elf. He thrives in winter, it is his favorite season. His magic is a part of him. When I turned him, he lost some of that. He gained more, but…that took time for him to grieve a
nd to acclimate.”
“And you feel no regret for it.” I dared him to lie to me. I’d been in that memory. I’d been there when he turned him.
“I do not regret saving my friend. Nor do I regret giving him the time to make his peace with it.”
“Generous.”
He shrugged.
The light faded, and it was getting darker. I sat abruptly. The sand was warm beneath me, even if the breeze was cold.
“I could just not drink.”
“I cannot let you do that,” he told me, and he sounded almost sorrowful. But he wasn’t. He didn’t regret doing this to Rogue, and now he wouldn’t regret doing it to me.
“Did you force Fin, too?”
But even as I tried to focus on him, he faded. Through blurred vision, I found him hovering over me. His mouth was red with my blood. He pressed his lips to mine, a teasing kiss, and then ground his hips gently against me.
I refused. Even if my body wanted his, I refused.
I closed my eyes and blocked him out.
“Hellion,” he whispered. “You have to drink. Take back from me what I have taken from you.”
“No.”
His sigh filled the room.
“Fiona,” he commanded, and my name settled on me like strings attaching themselves and jerking me to move. I opened my eyes to find his throat right there. He rolled onto his back, pressing my face into his throat, and then he dragged a hand down to my ass, massaging it. “Drink.”
I scraped my teeth against my lower lip. The pain had gone past the point I even cared about it. Breathing was hard, and my heart grew more sluggish. If I refused, if I turned away, this could all be over.
At the same time…
“Do you really want to die, Hellion?” Alfred squeezed my ass. “You’ll take Maddox from us.”
What?
I forced my tumbling eyes open.
“Possibly Fin, too.”
I swallowed at my dry throat, and it burned. All I could smell was Alfred. His scent filled my nostrils, and I ached. Even as I told myself no, I began to roll my hips. His cock bumped against my clit, and a spear of pleasure darted through me. Licking at my dry lips, I tried to pull away, but he kept my face at his throat.
“Maddox has already let you claim him, Hellion—you’re his mate. Do you hear his roars?” I had, though I’d tried to tune them out. The room seemed to vibrate from them. “He will tear this place apart to get to you if you do not drink.”
I could almost hear him, pleading with me. Drink, Kitten.
You can hear him, Beautiful. Fin’s voice slipped in. You have to drink.
I was so tired.
“You are almost done,” Alfred promised. But that could be a lie. What did I know?
Beautiful, trust us. Please. You’re ours. I asked you for time, and you said you would give it to us.
The tears in his voice threatened to gut me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Maddox’s roar thrummed through me, and I pressed my mouth down against Alfred’s throat.
I hate you all.
A pause as I sank my teeth in, and that old blood rushed in to soothe all the pain. I clamped down faster this time, even as I sank down on his cock at once. The pleasure lit me up as his power flooded into me.
We know, Beautiful. Fin sounded so damn sad.
Then I heard nothing as I began to move, every thrust sending me higher as I drank, and Alfred stroked me through it. When his memories swam up to swallow me, I fought them off, focusing on the way he stretched me and how my nipples scraped against his chest.
I drank until he went lax beneath me and came with a shout, my own orgasm staggering me.
Then and only then did I lift my head.
Meeting his gaze, I waited. His cock was still buried deep, and his eyes gleamed. “Yes?” he demanded.
And I finally understood the question.
He offered me himself, but I had to give in return. I had to give willingly.
Fine, if that was the only way out of this prison—the only way to be strong enough to defeat them all—then I’d take it.
“Yes.”
Pleasure flared in his eyes, and Maddox’s roar changed. Fin brushed his thoughts to mine, his regret and triumph tangled too tightly together for me to separate. Then they all faded. The only one I didn’t feel or see was Rogue. Perhaps he understood my decision best of all.
Alfred gripped my hair and flipped me over, then struck.
As his teeth pierced me, I surrendered.
It looked like I was going to be a damn vampire after all.
Fiona may have surrendered this battle, but the war has only begun. Alfred, Rogue, Maddox, and Fin will have their hands full when we return in
Succubus Unchained.
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Kiss of Fate Sneak Peek
Living on borrowed time, yeah, never thought that would apply to me. - Dahlia
Judgment
After millennia, finally, fucking finally, Judgment discovered the key to bringing his brothers to heel. It was nothing he would ever have expected considering how jaded and resentful Justice and Punishment were. But here they were in a bar on the outskirts of Dallas, a city hotter than hell in August, riveted by a woman in what appeared to be a rather unpleasant argument.
Oh, how the mighty had fallen, to be so infatuated with a human they practically drooled, even as they seemed to lean toward her.
She was beautiful, like a goddess of old with her tall, slender body and midnight hair against alabaster skin. Not his type, but beautiful. Actually, now that he thought about it, not their type either. Yet they gravitated toward her as if pulled on an invisible string.
“Seth. Long time no see,” a sweet voice came from behind him. At first he didn’t want to turn, he knew exactly who was there. Life was unpredictable with her around, definitely on the less enjoyable side. Of course, she would be here when he finally cornered his brothers.
“Karmen,” he sighed, pulling his long blond braid over his shoulder. None of the humans could see it, but it was always there.
She settled alongside him, studying the scene before them with an objective eye.
“Do Tarus and Zhan know you’re here?”
Hell no. It was no secret those bastards split off more than a few thousand years before, and for what? Because they were too tired, they didn't feel like anything they did mattered in the grand scheme of things. So fucking what? Their job wasn’t to analyze the effects of their grace, but to follow the goddamned rules. They failed.
And they kept failing.
Where did that leave Judgment? To clean up every mess they created by not using their grace where and when they should have. Each time he swept behind them, he grew a little more bitter, a little angrier. Justice and Punishment were integral to the world the Keepers had created.
It was past time for them to learn a lesson, Judgment was more than willing to deliver it, but finding something that would put a dent in their emotional armor eluded him. His was the task of rendering judgment, but he’d lacked the right punishment until now. The means by which to deliver the justice due them. No, the irony hadn’t been lost on him. By ignoring their duty, they had neutered him.
Until tonight.
Did they know he was here? He very much doubted they knew where they were at this point.
“You know the answer to that,” he growled, not willing to waste time in useless conversations.
Karmen patted him on the shoulder. “Then I won’t share your secret. But the object of their affection looks like she needs some help.” The crowd swallowed her up as she glided toward the bar.
As soon as she left him, she was forgotten, his attention returning to his brothers. The man accompanying the woman shook her so hard, Judgment winced from the whiplash. Her shoulders bunched up to her ears as she grimaced and held her head as far away from him as she could while stil
l in his clutches. She dug her fingers into his forearms as her lips moved rapidly, but in profile he couldn’t make out the words. Judgment edged closer, curious to hear what their argument was about, and more importantly, why Justice and Punishment were so enthralled.
“Is this fucking funny to you, Dahlia?” The man yelled utterly unconcerned about the fact their dispute attracted an audience both human and very much not.
For her part, Dahlia—he turned the name over, testing the different nuances of each syllable—met the man’s furious gaze steadily even if her lips twitched with what Judgment suspected was a nervous smile.
“No, of course not,” she said, tugging at her arm in a vain attempt to pull away. Vain because the man white-knuckled his grip and the red marks already forming promised bruises. “Alex, it was a stupid comment.”
“Oh, of course it was,” “Alex” sneered. “Everything is a joke. I tell you they’re threatening to can me and all you can say is ‘it’s not a big deal, you know how they are’? This is serious and you’re acting like I’m the one overreacting. You know I fucking hate it when you try to belittle me that way.”
Well, Judgment considered, while it could mean exactly what she said, it definitely meant “Alex” here was a dick. He leaned in closer to her, his voice coming out in a rough whisper-shout, clearly audible to the other patrons. Clearly, because the cowards edged away, darting looks like most humans did when tragedy unfolded around them and they had to gawk like spectators.
“Alex,” Dahlia said his name in a soft rasp, the echo of tears coating her voice but no recrimination. Shock rippled through Judgment. What she offered was not rebuke but comfort. Instead of pulling away, she pushed in and spread her hand against the man’s chest. “I’m sorry. I wanted to make it better and I made it worse.”
“Fucking right you made it worse. I’m not some shit loser you scrape off your expensive shoes.” A little bit of spit jumped from his lips as he spoke and struck her cheek. The absolute lack of reaction on her part puzzled Judgment.
