by C. Swallow
What kind of question was that?
“…uh…mmm…,” an easy, awkward, answer from me. A truth and a lie.
“Good enough for now,” Rey finally unhands me, like I’m disgusting and hard to be around for too long. He backs off a few steps, “…over time, when I suggest you fuck them, you’ll obey without any kind of…” he seems to realise how my eyes widen when he said ‘them’ as in plural, and not just - “…hesitation.”
Rey’s eyes focus on my neck as it pulses… it’s his version of a farewell and then he just stalks past me.
Getting away.
Quick.
I can’t even make words pass through my windpipe, my throat is so tightly shut.
His words hit too close to home to all my insecurities.
…over time, when I suggest you fuck them… you’ll obey without any kind of hesitation.
Them.
It all makes sense now.
I hear Zarcar and Lixar finishing off a conversation above, oblivious to what happened down below as if Rey had been the one to use magic to seal off our own private conversation.
I head to the door and shut it tight.
Rey was building a large, unconventional Venatores with plans to have three Mystifyers present, yet only one could be my mate of choosing.
Except that was what it was meant to be.
Traditionally.
And Rey had other ideas.
I was not happy.
I wasn’t sure if it was abhorrent… or just overwhelming.
A Slave Queen.
In Rey’s eyes, I was going to do more than just fight for him.
I turn to head for the bed, raising my eyes… that’s when I see it.
The black rose.
On the top of my wardrobe.
From Rey.
The last time I was given a single rose from Zarcar, I knew what that entailed.
To make matters worse, that reaction from Rey pecking my lips wasn’t disgust as I had first thought. Even Zarcar assumed Rey had certain ‘types’ of women. Mages. Mortals. But that tiny kiss was filled with disgust at himself.
Rey wanted me badly. I knew it. But he was going to play with his food first. I knew it wasn’t his top priority, however, and that was my only advantage.
I could focus on what it meant to be an Awakened Draconess… and try to make that seem like the most important thing for all of them.
But… there was also the final pathway.
I could run.
It was seeming like my only options were narrowing down to that one alternative.
Escaping; before I became a mindless toy for all of them.
Chapter 23
It’s the first time I disobey my captors, after Rey had ordered me to fuck Zarcar. Once Rey had left, my insides hadn’t stopped churning. I didn’t know if it was anger or fear, but I did the only thing I could do, to keep Zarcar from trying to seduce me last night.
I pretended to cry, very loudly, when he eventually came down and tried to open the door I had locked. I screamed at him to go away and when he did, very awkwardly, I ran to the window and watched with dry eyes as Lixar left and Zarcar spoke to Holden outside.
That night I slept on my own successfully.
The next morning however, was a different story. I do not wake up alone to consider how I will process everything that happened last night, such as my chances at running and how I could possibly gain any new information out of my captors.
Instead, I wake up after sleeping soundly while holding a pillow to my chest. I open my eyes to see Zarcar, who’s snuck into my room and is sitting on the bed next to me. His black eyes face the blue stones set in the wall while I sleep behind him.
He’s dark brown ringlets are hanging out over his back and bare shoulders, because he is only wearing breeches while his hand holds a sword and his cheeks look a tad pale.
“Morning… my Warlord…” I manage to say it sweetly enough. I wipe away the sleep from my eyes, blinking away the fog as Zarcar turns to me with a stern expression.
“The King has informed me of what kind of training you will receive today,” Zarcar gulps as he pauses, “…I stressed that I should attend…”
“Why?” I pretend to be oblivious, even though I remembered the King’s words clearly. He wanted me to shift into my Draconess form today, under the instruction of Lixar.
“You’ll be fully Awakened, no Horse Root today to stave off your connection. You’ll make your first kill…” I’m surprised Zarcar tells me this much, “You’ll be chained so you do not escape once you have shifted for the first time.”
“Moon forbid that I would ever try such a feat…” it was too early since waking for me to put on a dramatic tone, but as I rise up on one elbow, Zarcar finally dares to touch me again – after 3 months of being kept from me. The back of his hand caresses my cheeks sweetly enough for a man of strict teaching. I look past him now to see a topless Lixar waiting in the doorway, eyeing me with a smirk, “…why would I run away from such handsome men… I have been blessed with such demonically gorgeous captors,” I sigh as I lean into Zarcar’s touch, smiling widely.
He glares over his shoulder at Lixar, who does nothing but smirk unwaveringly at my words.
While Zarcar is busy glaring at Lixar, I slip my fully naked body out of the sheets and lean into Zarcar’s neck, licking over his pulse, up to his ear. He stills with the movement. But then I bite the bottom of his ear lobe, tugging on it.
“You’re my first kill today, demon,” I growl, trying to be funny.
Zarcar hasn’t flinched, nor taken his eyes off Lixar who has opened his mouth and struggles to find the right words to say.
Zarcar is fully aware of the game I play, however.
“…clothes… sweetheart…” Zarcar growls the order while I try to lean in for another kiss, this time on his cheek – but he pulls away from me as he stands up, turning to put a hand on the back of my head, shoving me down into the blankets so my tits are covered, even though my bare ass is wiggling back up into both their faces.
“Stop being a jealous whore!” I yell out at Zarcar, growling and spitting into the blankets.
“...I’ll… wait… outside,” Lixar points to the corridor and watches me like I’m a little bit insane.
As he waltzes out and shuts the door, Zarcar sighs and unhands me, standing back to stare at my behind.
I crawl onto my knees, to the middle of the bed, I run my hands through my hair and arch my back as I look at the ceiling.
I stretch slowly, raising my arms above my head, twinkling my fingers.
“…mmmm… what a lovely sleep…”
“I let you be last night because you were in tears,” Zarcar says this, strained with worry.
I glance at him, confused… until I remember I’m meant to show some sort of distress from last night.
But it’s too late.
“…it was a lie?!” Zarcar yells out, his cheeks blushing red with embarrassment as he suddenly realises I tricked him, “Crying wolf… you will regret it next time tears stain your cheeks, Chyronex,” Zarcar warns me with a dark promise.
I wave him off, smiling.
My Warlord shakes his head and turns to leave, looking back at me with exasperation… but then his eyes travel upwards. His eyes focus on something next to the bed. My chest of draws.
Why?
I raise a brow and turn to follow his gaze.
Oh.
Rey’s black rose is still on the top of my draws.
“Chyronex,” Zarcar speaks my name, slightly higher pitched, as if trying to deeply control his roiling mixed emotions, “Was Rey here last night?”
I turn to him and bite my bottom lip.
I nod my head once.
“…he is quite the…” I pause to see Zarcar’s reaction. Perfectly as I would have imagined, he stops breathing, hell bent on picking apart every word that pipes out of me next, “…the King… an intimidating King. You’d be pleased to know I follow
ed your advice. I submitted and did everything he asked.”
“…what did he ask?” Zarcar can’t quite believe Rey had been here, and he never knew.
“To kneel and prove compliance so I said all the right things, I promise,” I rest my hands on my knees, my breasts perking out as the light wind from the window, causes them to bud a bit tighter. I tilt my head and pass Zar a warm closed lip comforting smile of reassurance that nothing was amiss.
“We will be outside,” Zarcar leaves it at that, trying to avoid staring at my naked body as he finally exists, “Wear a shift, something easy to remove!” professional.
He didn’t mean it in a lusty manner, for once, but I scoff anyway.
As the door shuts to give me some privacy, I hear Zarcar talk to Lixar through the door.
“…Moon gift my ears this one sweet wind…” I whisper it as I grab a simple dress lying on the floor.
A fitted brown work dress, something I wore when I did some gardening.
As I pull it over the top of my head, I tip toe to the door and listen in, as their whispered words are amplified by my small spell.
“The Demon should be a Shapeshifter,” Lix hisses, “Not a turd sized bat – what’s wrong with your mind, cousin? Don’t you want to see her make Rey shake in his perfect royal boots?”
“The more of a threat she is, the more likely Rey’s patience will snap and then he’ll command that she –“
“Shut up. I disagree,” Lix cuts him off, “…let her thrive… let her know… she’s smart, she’ll know all the right moves…”
“Rey was in her damn room last night. The only reason she survived was from my teachings of submission – she will not last a moment otherwise. I’m protecting her. You are, once again, being selfish to the point that people will start dying again… just for your impatient sense of justice. Rey is not the King you once knew. Though he is still unstable at times, his goals have changed.”
“How can you trust the last Vampyre in existence to rule over a Venatores? Zarcar, you’re crazy –”
“I’ve never trusted Rey until I saw the way he looked at her…” Zarcar trails off… “Something is different with…” Silence. The door slams open and I see Zarcar watching me in disbelief, “Eavesdropping?” Zarcar snarls this and I glance at Lixar, who scowls at what I’m wearing.
“I liked it better when your tits were out,” Lix snaps at me, just before Zarcar swings his head back to his cousin and growls.
“Shut your dirty whore mouth, Lixar –”
I step forward and hold out an arm, either side of me.
“May I?” I ask, fluttering my eyelids as Zarcar and Lixar see I want to link an arm between the two of them.
When neither approach, I drop my arms and frown.
“Fine,” I snap.
“Move,” Zarcar puts his hand on the back of my neck and forces me to get ahead, so they can walk behind.
I stumble forward a few steps and turn around, flustered and glaring at the two infuriating men.
Both topless.
Why?
It was needlessly distracting!
“We’re not wearing shirts because we’re going to transform if you cause too much trouble,” Lixar answers me, and when I gawk, he explains, “Zarcar can control the weather… I can read your thoughts. Anyone’s thoughts. As long as they’re vulnerable to it.”
Lixar bites his lip when he sees how I blush.
Zarcar just glares at Lixar like he might just throw him out the window.
“Well, I am fragile,” I squeak out, coughing to loosen my tight voice box, “So don’t shove me around,” I snap this at Zarcar and he rolls his eyes.
“Not for long,” Lixar nods at me, “Just wait until you shift.”
“How will I shift?”
“We’ll fuck you into unconsciousness on a sacrificial stone table and then cut your heart out,” Lixar leans forward and says it with such a serious tone… I miss the sarcasm all together.
I stop walking, in total shock, only for Zarcar to reach down and pick me up around the waist, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Shut it, Lix,” Zar rumbles the warning as we start descending the tower stairs.
Lixar walks behind with a pout.
“It was a joke but I’d still do both, fuck you… and eat your heart out,” Lixar mentions this a bit more lightly, his lips twitching up, his hazel eyes steady.
I narrow my eyes at him.
Now… I wasn’t sure if that was a joke.
And Zarcar only squeezes my thigh, as if to warn me it was a possibility.
I gulp.
When I look back up from the steps, Lixar has strived past as if to stop making me feel so uncomfortable.
When we reach the front of the tower, we find our last companion waiting in the outside garden, chewing on her own Horse Root.
Andoll is dressed in a similar dress to me and she scowls when she sees we are the same.
I smile at her and she throws the rest of her root at Lix, who just avoids her altogether.
Okay, maybe that glare was for Lixar, not for me.
Zarcar stops altogether when he notices the discrepancy.
“Why did you halt, cousin?” Lixar walks ahead, turning around and throwing up his hands.
“Did you fuck Andoll, Lixar?” Zarcar asks, monotone.
“I’ve been locked away for 7 years, cousin –”
Andoll walks to the side of Zarcar, gritting her teeth at Lixar.
“I needed some freaky sex,” Lix shrugs, “Andoll, you were great.”
“Shut up, you piece of horse shit!” Andoll screeches at him and he pouts.
“Don’t bite me,” Lix covers his crotch area and turns around.
A mischievous bastard.
“I’ll do more than he knows when he’s sleeping soundly one night,” Andoll growls up to Zarcar as we walk, “He whispered sweet nothings into my ear and then left in the morning.”
“Don’t ever sleep with him again,” Zarcar snaps at Andoll, “Ever.”
Andoll smiles now. She falls back a step and looks up into my eyes, her own gaze crazy with joy, “…I had him before you… Draconess… I can confirm for you… he is terrible in bed… absolutely terrible…” she can’t stop smiling.
I have no idea what she means by this.
Or the word terrible.
If it was terrible why was she grinning?
“Enough. We walk in silence,” Zarcar isn’t happy by Andoll’s choice of words, and he even slaps a hand over my ass, “…behave…” he finally lets me slide down his front and lets me go.
I dance away from him and walk on my own, glaring at each one of them.
If this was a Venatores… a group of hunters… and I was the apparent leader of said Venatores… I sure disliked every single one of them.
I deflect from my irritation at each member, and I think to the Immortal King.
A Vampyre, huh?
The last one to exist?
I scoff.
I had never heard of such a thing, but I wonder what they can do?
Chapter 24
“This is the perfect place to practice Shifting, wouldn’t you agree?” Lixar asks me as we arrive at one deconstructed part of Swendula where the buildings were vacant from a catastrophic fire many years ago. It was considered cursed so no one came back to rebuild.
It’s haunting as the stones are tarnished brown-black, while even the green hasn’t grown from the ashes. An old inn was basically razed to the ground, a bunch of stone village houses only had their front facades standing. At the end of the area, nestled at the back by the 40 ft wall surrounding Swendula – is an old temple ruin.
Round and held up with pillars, the inside has no roof top and the floor is marble, cracked in places by the heat of the fire that scorched through.
“This is indeed, perfect,” I murmur to myself with forced enthusiasm, knowing this was a well isolated part of the town to dally in such demonic magic. If I was to shift i
nto a demon monster, at least no one in town would see.
Andoll runs up the steps at the entrance and heads to the middle of the temple, sitting crossed legged, she closes her eyes and hums a tune.
