by A. K. Koonce
This place has pulled me towards three different men. Broken, hurting, dangerous men who are as rare as I am. A life with them outside of these walls is a life of being hunted, a life of constantly looking over our shoulders.
I should mind it, but I don’t. I find it comforting that they are as rare as I am, as in danger as I am. It makes me feel safe with them. And the fact that Rue and I are bonded just makes the trust run deeper. Is that fucked up?
“Well, right now we are pretending for the masses to throw suspicion off what we really want to do.”
Steal my sword back. Save Kira. Run off into the night. Right.
He pulls me closer, throwing his arm around my shoulder. His lips skim across the lobe of my ear, and his whispered words leave me breathless. “But I will give you validation anyway. Let’s call you my girlfriend, if that pleases you.”
It pleases my vagina immensely.
His dark, rumbling chuckle echoes in my mind. My tongue wants to please your vagina immensely.
I shove him good-naturedly. “Perverted old man. How old are you, anyway?”
His dark eyes bleed red. “Too old.”
“Then the term ‘girlfriend’ must be too much modern slang for you, huh? What was the term back in your day? Caveman grunts and hand signals?”
“Keep making jokes, chère. I’ll show you hand signals.”
The dangerous promise slithers through me, and I relish the sensation. Just like I relish the image that flares down the bond of his tongue roaming every inch of my body. Of him pushing me until I’m teetering on the edge of pleasure and then pulling back just before I can reach it. When he finally allows me to orgasm, it’s like transcending into hell and heaven at once.
The sensation slams into me like a fucking train. I jerk back, my feet skidding over the hallway rug, hand pulling from Rue’s as sensation after sensation pulses straight down to my clit. My whole body erupts with tingling sensations, and my lips part as I gasp and groan.
Light bursts unexpectedly from nowhere behind my tightly clenched eyes.
Did I just—
What the fuck?
I look up to find Rue smirking at me.
What. The. Fuck.
Literally.
“Did you just use our connection and vampire glamor to make me spontaneously orgasm?” Every word out of my mouth is punctuated by sharp bursts of pleasure through my body and gasping, rasping breaths.
A flash of fangs makes him seem too fucking satisfied with himself. Bloodsucking bastard. Perverted old man. Shriveled limp-dick motherfucker.
Rue tsk-tsks and pulls me forward. I should fight back, but his touch soothes the aftershocks of my orgasm. “You aren’t thinking very nice thoughts.”
Ugh.
My palms collide with his chest as I shove him away and glare at his smug expression. “You’re enjoying this way too much. And stop snooping on me through our bond. We have a job to do.”
“Don’t want to mix business with pleasure?” At my expression, he sighs. “Fine.” He takes my hand in his again, and we resume strolling through hallways at his leisurely pace.
I notice others stare at us as we walk by, and their gazes make me nervous. How are we supposed to be discreet when everyone’s staring at us?
Oh, so we’re using the bond to speak now? I thought you didn’t want it.
I hate how he sounds defensive about this situation. Hey, I’m not misusing it and making you squirt in your pants for everyone here to see.
He chuckles. Squirt.
Lady of Darkness, you’re impossible. It’s like dealing with a horny teenager.
You want to know how they won’t suspect us, chère?
Yes.
In response, he looks over his shoulders discreetly and pulls me into a side room, slamming the door behind us. It’s empty and shrouded in darkness. Rue pushes my back against the door, and the firm frame rattles.
He bends low in the darkness, and I catch a flash of his bright fangs as they graze across my bottom lip. Because they’ll think we’ll be here doing naughty things. It will distract them from the real naughty things we’re going to do.
Brilliant.
“It was Styx’s idea. Smart pup you got yourself there.”
Styx is highly intelligent, something I’m beginning to realize. Each one of the men I’ve surrounded myself with has so many layers to themselves. Styx is intelligent and craves affection constantly. For someone like me, it should be annoying, but it’s not because our dynamic is always consensual. And I—I just want to take care of him. He deserves someone who can take care of him.
I’m his alpha, and if I make him happy with a hug or a hand touch in passing, then I’ll do it.
Sialen and Rue are more mysterious, and I’m only beginning to scratch the surface with each of them. In our quest for our freedom, I know I’ll discover more about them. Right now, I know enough to know that I can trust them, and they can trust me.
We want the same things, after all.
Which is why, after Sialen found out where my sword’s hiding and where Kira is probably being held, Styx had come up with a plan. Since Sialen seemed to be under Krist’s watchful scrutiny and she liked to keep an eye on him, he would distract her, giving us an opportunity to slip into her office.
A part of me had warred with the idea. The last time I’d been in there, things hadn’t ended well. But I’m a motherfucking Sekar. The Holy Lady of Death lingers in every beat of my soul. It was she who gifted me that sword, and Krist has no right to keep it from me. It’s my Sekar legacy, mine and mine alone. I won’t hide like a coward and let someone else take back what's rightfully mine.
The Sekar are made of tougher stuff than that. We know death and darkness. It lives with us from the day we are born. In death we live, and in darkness we thrive. It is a part of me, and I will not hide from it. I’ll fight with everything I have, until there’s not a scrap of fight left within me.
“Let’s go.” Rue takes my hand and pulls me through the darkness quickly, listening in on my thoughts, no doubt. “The Academy has many lovely hiding spots and secret passageways.” He goes over to what looks like a fireplace and pulls the handle of a torch above it. A resounding rattle echoes and vibrates across the floor. He turns to me. “Now, forgive me for what I’m about to do.”
“What?”
The sensation slams through me again. This time, I can’t hold back my screams of pleasure as my orgasm tears from my clit and spreads throughout my entire body. It takes me over entirely and groan after groan comes out of me as all the delicious sensations collide through my system in a euphoria of blissful release.
“Oh, fuck. Fuck me, Rue!” I double over, hugging myself around my middle. The bastard! His chuckles reach me down our bond, but I ignore them. How can I even concentrate with my body still bursting?
Once the sensation fades, Rue pulls me into an upright position. “Your screams distract from the noise as well as keep up the illusion that we’re doing naughty things.”
“I’m going to get you back for that, you bastard.”
“Yeah, yeah, less talking and more sneaking.”
I force myself up the stairs of the secret passageway. Cobwebs and shadows live on the other side, and I swat the cobwebs away impatiently after Rue. We move silently and slowly, it feels like it takes forever to get to the top. When we finally do and Rue opens the passageway to the other side, we emerge in Krist’s office.
My heart pounds uncomfortably as I step into the bell tower room. Her real office. The sinister one she uses to punish students, as opposed to the more pristine one she uses to trick supernaturals into signing away their freedom.
This one reeks of twisted magic and danger, and the inside holds memories that threaten to overwhelm. I swallow past the lump in my throat and take in a breath. I am a Sekar. I am a disciple of my Holy Lady of Death.
I am not afraid.
“Here, chère.” Rue is standing behind the desk, wrenching open the second dra
wer at the bottom. I hold my breath, but nothing bad happens. It’s not spelled, but with the stench in the air, one can never be too careful.
“Don’t just go around opening drawers willy-nilly,” I chastise, coming around to peer inside. “A plethora of bad things can happen magically.”
“Whatever. Just grab your sword, and let’s go.”
I peer into the contents. Knobs and metal gears lie scattered within. I’m almost too afraid to touch them, but I push them aside and see a dark velvet cloth. Pulling it away reveals the gleaming hilt of my sword.
Damios.
At long last.
The moment my fingers touch the hilt, it flares to life with a brightness as blinding as streaking stars. The runes come to life and seem to wrap around the blade as if they can reach out from the steel and hug me in their arms.
“I missed you.”
Holding it gives me life again. It gives me purpose. It’s like being blessed by my Lady all over again, and this time, I won’t let anyone take what’s rightfully mine. I’d rather die.
“Alright, chère, you done?” Rue’s voice clips with impatience as he slams the drawer shut again. “We have to go now. Quickly.”
I twirl my blade and relish my grip on it for a single moment longer before we rush from the room. The secret passageways close behind Rue until we’re down in that dark room again.
“One more time, chère.”
“What?”
I should’ve seen the orgasm coming, but I didn’t. It hits me. Not just one, but many, coming and coming until my knuckles go white, and I’m nearly falling on the floor. Cries rip from my mouth that I’m sure can be heard down to the dungeons of this fucking place, and they certainly drown away the sound of stone scraping together. My whole body goes slack with my releases, and I can’t move.
Rue has rendered me completely useless.
The cruel, amazing, demented, sweet asshole.
“I’ll take care of you, chère.” Big arms wrap around my body and pull me to his chest. He tucks my blade gently beneath my shirt and angles me so no one can see it. I can do nothing but nuzzle close to his chest.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” I threaten with no real vehemence in those words.
He presses a kiss to my forehead. “I know you will, chère. Sia says Kira is probably in the labs, but they’re heavily guarded right now and we have no way to get to Kira today.” He waits a few moments before kicking open the door and walking into the hall with me in his arms. I can feel the eyes on us. On me. On my frazzled, languid limbs clutched tightly to the Ancient One’s chest like he is cradling a baby.
I feel the eyes on us, but I don’t open my own. Not until he opens the door to my dorm room and places me on the bed. Only then do I take out my sword and hold it close. Despite everything, despite the metal on my spine and everything I suffered, this feels familiar. It feels like I’m whole again.
And while the magic of my heritage washes over me, I can't help but feel something else as well.
I frown. “That was . . . almost . . . too easy.” It shouldn’t have been that easy. No alarms, no guard dogs, nothing to prevent us from just walking in there and taking this. “Why was it so easy?” I question. Nothing good in life ever comes easy, and it makes me nervous that something this important did.
“Why does that make you unhappy?” Rue sits on the edge of the bed, crossing his legs together.
“Because life is all about balance. Light and dark. Good and bad. Take and receive. This seems almost too good to be true. Like, if Krist went through all the trouble of taking this from me, she would have had it better guarded.” It’s almost insulting that she didn’t. I was ready to fight for it and hadn’t been given the opportunity.
Rue waves off my worries with a flick of his hand. “Learn to take things in stride, chère. Not everything and everyone has an ulterior motive. Maybe the headmistress just got cocky. Count it as a blessing.”
Intuition swirls in my blood. The fine hairs along the back of my neck stand one by one.
My Holy Lady of Death hints at something I can’t see.
But I feel it.
“It’s . . . something bad.”
Dread curls in my stomach.
And I can’t help but feel like something worse is headed our way.
Chapter Seventeen
It never comes.
The bad never comes.
Krist never noticed the fact that I’d pilfered from her office. Even though I slept with one eye open every night for the next few days, no one came to haul me back to the labs or punish us for what we did.
It puts me on fucking edge.
And every night, with my eyes half-lidded, I noticed something that made bile gurgle in my gut.
Kira is still locked in the lab. Every fucking day they keep her there and only let her wander out at night.
I’ve passed her in the halls, and I even spotted her peering in on me during classes, but she says nothing.
The blank smile that slices up her face sends more and more panicked energy through my body.
What! What is she waiting for?
More importantly, what the fuck have they done to her to make her walk around like a zombie?
They’ve had her in their clutches for too long. And too much time has passed.
Too fucking much.
Kira has been experimented on for almost a week now, and it’s time for us to save her from that.
“We shouldn't do this. Lady of Death is warning us, Em,” Sialen whispers so harshly, I feel every one of his words graze across my neck as I count down the minutes in the darkness of the room.
We’re right back in the last place I ever wanted to be.
The lab.
I can’t wait any longer.
Maybe we won’t escape tonight, but I can’t let another night pass knowing what they're doing to Kira.
They did it to me. And I’m fucking sitting around while they do it over and over again to her.
I can’t do it any longer.
Styx watches the hall, but it’s total silence stinging around us. Rueren’s body is pure tension, but I know by the blood-red color of his eyes that he’s ready for whatever is about to come.
My sword is held low in my hands. My boots are firmly planted with every muscle in my body ticking with deadly anticipation.
There’s a bright white light within the room around the corner.
The lab.
Dr. Hyde’s lab.
Is he in there? Is the bastard in there with Kira?
Will I truly be able to let him slip past me and focus on the young girl I want to help so badly? Will I really be able to let the mysterious doctor walk away without repercussion of what he’s done to us?
The door swings open as a body pushes its way inside. Light spills over the shadows, kissing the toes of my boots as heavy footfalls sound like a drill within my ears.
My sword lifts by its own accord. It’s bloodthirsty.
My sweet blade wants that fucker dead more than I do. For what he did, what he does.
I catch a glimpse of a man inside, see the span of his back clad in a white lab coat. It’ll be blood red in the next several seconds. I never really saw Dr. Hyde’s face, but I heard his voice all around me. It haunts my nightmares, and I’ll remember it forever.
The truth is, I don’t even know if this man is Dr. Hyde.
I don’t care.
Anyone in league with him deserves death and I’m thirsty to reap his soul and send it plunging to my Lady of Darkness. Let her torture him in the afterlife the way I was tortured.
The weapon arcs high. I start to lunge.
And strong arms wrap around my torso, hauling me back into the shadows and against his chest just as the door swings closed again.
My arm comes down fast, and my elbow connects with his ribs, but despite his low growling cursing, Sia never releases me.
“You’re such a pain my ass, Sekar.” His whisper is a cutting blade across my ch
eek, so dark and so low that I have to strain to hear it.
Let’s go, Rueren commands, mind to mind. He leads the way further down the hall to another door where they’re supposedly keeping Kira, pulling me away from my chance at vengeance.
Don’t forget, alpha, Styx adds sweetly, his palm settling on the small of my back as Sialen less than politely drags me through the lab door.
My teeth grind, but they’re right. Kira is more important.
I’ve already failed her for too long.
The tile is blindingly clean. My black boots slow as I walk across the span of the enormous room.
Silver tools shine with a threat of pain on the table in front of us.
And just beyond that are three chairs. Each one is made of smooth, clean leather. Each one is adorned with straps along the edges. Each one brings back too many dark memories.
And to my surprise, each one . . . is empty.
“What—” I barely get the word out before it’s cut off by a sharp, taunting tone.
“You really cared about that naive little girl enough to come back here?”
My metallic spine tenses at the sound of her voice.
I turn slowly and lock gazes with bright, venomous blue eyes.
Krist almighty.
Marcen stands behind her in a pressed black suit. His eyes glowing maliciously as he takes all of us in.
I fucking hate them.
Both of them.
“Where’s Kira?” I ask calmly as my fingers tighten one by one over the warm hilt of my blade.
Her tail wafts happily around her slender legs like a cat spotting a mouse for the first time in years.
“She’s being studied. We do more than test your blood, Miss Lucero. We have to test your magic. Your endurance. We take our studies very seriously.” Her hands fold, and I hate the way she looks at us one by one.
“What does that mean?” Styx takes a step closer, and I’m all too aware of how his big body is positioned just in front of mine.
“Oh, would you care to find out?” That lashing smile slashes over her red lips, and the warlock’s blinding magic is splaying through the white room without warning. Magic that’s too powerful for any one of his kind to have. And I know, just by the force of it, that it’s unnatural. That they gave it to him.
