by Sara Thorn
“Move,” he said as he eyed the tub and pushed me out of the way to get past me. He lowered himself into the water and groaned.
I stood there, too surprised to go anywhere. I had expected Dregon to be more vicious. Although, I was sure that part was still coming. He would have been a handsome man if it weren’t for how purely evil he was. Evil had a tendency to cast a disguise of ugliness onto anyone it touched. Dregon was hugely muscular as if he were made out of a tree trunk. His dark-brown hair and russet-colored eyes made him seem more earthy than some of the other vampires I had seen. The most interesting part about his appearance was the long scar that stretched from the bottom of his chin and ran down the entire length of his left side until it reached his waist where it stopped. It looked like someone had literally tried to fillet him open by splitting his side from face to guts.
The way I looked at this, I had two choices. I could be defiant and end up suffering his wrath, or I could try to appease him in the hopes of avoiding some of his brutality.
I tucked in the top of the cloth so it would stay wrapped around me like a dress. I didn’t have any other clothes to change into anyway. Then I knelt at the head of the tub behind Dregon. I used my hands to scoop the water and pour it over his shoulders. He sat there without turning around as if it were expected of me to bathe him.
“Where did you get this scar?” I asked as I touched the side of his neck and ran my finger down the pinkish line until it reached the top of his shoulder.
“Athan’s father did that to me,” he answered.
I was rather shocked to hear that. Why in the world would Dregon want to serve under Athan, when it looked like Athan’s father had nearly cost him his life?
“Was it during a battle?” I asked as I tried to find out further about what happened.
“You ask too many questions. Wash me.”
“I am washing you,” I said contemptuously.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me around to the side of the tub. Then he placed my hand on top of his giant cock and wrapped my fingers around it. “Wash me here,” he said as he started to move my hand against him. “Then, I’ll talk to you more.”
Ugh. I washed and rubbed and asked questions as I did to try to ignore the distending fullness that was growing under my hand.
“Why do you serve under Athan if it was his father who did this to you?” I asked.
“I don’t serve under anyone,” he said as he groaned and pushed against my fingers. “I serve my own purposes.”
Interesting. I saw an opportunity present itself.
“You have bigger plans than Athan does?” I asked, trying my best to sound innocently curious. “I’m sure you are bigger than him in many ways.” I squeezed my fingers tighter around his girth and watched as his lips parted. It always amazed me how gullible men were when they thought with their cocks instead of their much-smaller brains. I fought against rolling my eyes.
“Athan thinks that I do all the grunt work for him, but really it is he who is doing the grunt work for me.”
“Oh?”
“Even at this moment, while I am here in my bath with a woman stroking my cock, he is out there pointing commands at his fae slaves with his one good hand.” Dregon laughed at himself, amused that he thought himself to be smarter than Athan. “I will sit here in my bath and let him make the surface livable for the vampires in the daylight. I will let him use his resources and run his fae slaves into the ground. Then, when the time is right, I will emerge and take it.”
I couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to sit here and tell me his plan against Athan; actually, maybe I could. Athan intended to rule over all the fae and vampires on Mystreuce, but in order to do so, he needed to be able to rule the surface, too.
“What is Athan building that will allow the surface to be viable for you?” I asked, making sure to increase the pleasure and pace of my hand in order to keep him distracted and talking.
Dregon groaned and arched his back in the bath. “A city,” he said between panting breaths. “A city of above-ground tunnels.”
That night, Dregon brought me a pile of clothes and tossed them onto a mat that rested on the floor near his bed. “These are for you to put on,” he said. “That is where you will sleep.”
I was relieved to find out that I wouldn’t be sleeping in the bed with him.
“You are my pet for now. If you please me, then I will keep you. If you don’t, then I will kill you. I may, at some point, want to have you, and if I do, then you won’t try to stop me. Until then, you can eat and sleep and wash me when I want to be washed.”
I wrinkled my face at the thought of all of it, but when I did, Dregon lunged forward and pinched my nose between his two fingers until it hurt so bad that I could barely see.
“And if you make that face at me again, I’ll cut your nose off your pretty face.”
He was definitely more beast than man.
I slept soundly that night on the mat like a dog. I was too exhausted to notice the hard floor or Dregon’s loud snoring. When I woke up to his kicking me sharply in the side, I had almost forgotten where I was.
“Go work with the other slaves in the kitchen,” he said. “Bring me food.”
I got up to my feet and walked down the hall in the direction that he pointed. Athan’s dwelling was much bigger than Cassius’s, and I knew that if I even tried to escape, I would end up getting hopelessly lost, and then caught, and then probably punished by Dregon in some horrific manner. The hallway was cold, and the dress Dregon had given me was thin. Eventually, I began to hear voices and saw the opening into the kitchen.
Fae filled the entire room. There were at least a dozen of them, prepping food and chattering in low voices. I recognized some of them from Cassius’s home; they must have been captured by Athan’s men during their attack and brought back here. They recognized me, too, and some of them smiled and came to touch my shoulder to see that I was okay. One of the girls gave me a bowl of whole fruits to cut as we talked. I listened as they told me about whispers that they had heard through magic, which bound the fae people together. It was almost like they could hear traces of each other’s thoughts, even when they weren’t nearby. It was that ability that allowed them to know bits and pieces of what was going on outside of Athan’s stronghold.
“Quinn has joined with Cassius,” one of the men said to me as he leaned over my fruit bowl to speak quietly. “They are formulating a plan to infiltrate Athan’s stronghold and rescue you.”
I immediately became excited at the thought of being rescued, and I thought he could tell. He looked older than the rest of the fae, and I wondered how exactly the lifespan and aging of fae folk worked. One day, if I ever manage to get out of here, I would like to ask Quinn about that.
He placed his hand gently over my wrist, which was still quite raw from the lacerations of the cuffs. It felt warm and tingly for a moment, and when he lifted his hand, the cuts were nearly gone.
“I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you,” he said as he placed his hand over my other wrist and gave me a solemn look. “Athan’s empire is vast and well-guarded. It is likely that Quinn and Cassius do not yet know what they’re up against here.”
Just as soon as my excitement had started, it then began to fade.
Seeing the hope drain from my face, he gave me a reassuring smile. “At least they want to come for you,” he said. “That is something in and of itself. It’s not often, or actually ever that a vampire and a fae risk their lives for a human.”
I smiled back at him in appreciation for both his kind words and his healing magic. He was right. The situation might be hopeless and dire, but it warmed me to know that they were coming for me. I just hoped that they didn’t get killed in the process of trying to save me.
When I walked back down the hall with a tray of food in my hand for Dregon, I thought about all the fae imprisoned here. If Cassius and Quinn were coming to try to save me, then we needed to try to save all of the fae here as
well. It gave me comfort to know that there were others here to talk to and that I wasn’t just trapped here with two sadistic vampires.
When I reached the room, Dregon was sitting at the table with Athan. It was actually impressive how convincingly he kissed Athan’s ass in order to raise no suspicion at all of the mutiny once Athan had completed building the city on the surface.
“Lovely,” Athan said when he saw me walk in and put the tray of food onto the table. “I was just starting to get hungry.”
“I thought vampires couldn’t eat anything besides human blood,” I said.
“Our tastes, as well as our genetics, have evolved enough to let us comingle food with our bloodlust,” Athan said as he put an entire slice of pomegranate, peel and all, into his mouth. “However, the bloodlust is still stronger than any other hunger we have. Are you offering?”
I suddenly realized he was talking about feeding on me and backed away until I was nearly at the opposing wall.
Athan laughed. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I would never take a taste of you unless you were mine. Dregon and I have a very strict pact with each other. Neither of us would ever go against the other.”
I almost burst into laughter at what Athan said, knowing that Dregon essentially planned to bring him down and that he didn’t suspect a thing. I saw Dregon shift in his seat as if he were expecting me to oust his secret, which of course, I wouldn’t do out of the simple fear that he would disassemble me limb from limb. Instead, I would just take pleasure in knowing about that little nugget of revenge that awaited Athan at some future point in time.
“Did Cassius ever taste you?” Dregon asked. I got the feeling he was eager to change the subject off of his relationship with Athan.
The word taste made me think of Cassius’s tongue in my mouth and filled me with such longing that I couldn’t speak for a minute for fear of crying.
“Of course he hasn’t yet,” Athan answered for me. For once, I was glad to stay quiet and let him talk instead. “She and I just had a little conversation about Cassius, and as it turns out, he hasn’t yet shown her his true form.”
Dregon chuckled, and I had no idea what was so funny.
“Filthy half-breed that he is. He may be able to control his bloodlust better, but not once he lets himself go completely. That’s when he’ll take a taste of her. Something to look forward to, eh?” he asked as he turned back to me.
“You’re not scaring me,” I said stubbornly. “I’m not afraid of Cassius or any of you.”
“Bold words,” Athan said with a wide, threatening sneer. “But, you definitely should be.”
Chapter Three
“They’re here!”
The hushed call came across the kitchen from one of the fae who had been outside the tunnels on the surface. Athan frequently sent the fae to the surface under a guarded watch in order for them to gather needed supplies or surveil things in the daylight that the vampires couldn’t do.
“Who’s here?” I asked her back.
“Cassius.”
My heart raced inside my chest as if it were suddenly whirling out of control. Cassius is here.
The older fae who had healed my wrists gave me a look. He was worried, and so was I. There was a rushing sound in the corridors as Athan sent his forces to deal with the oncoming attack. I peeked out into the tunnels to see and immediately began to panic. There were too many of them. Cassius and the fae wouldn’t stand a chance.
“We have to help them,” I said to all the fae in the kitchen with me. They stared at me, looking stunned until the older fae spoke up, too.
“She’s right,” he said. “Grab a knife, ready your magic; we have to help!”
“Thank you,” I said to him.
“You don’t need to thank me. These are our people; we’re on the same side of this,” he smiled.
I grabbed one of the knives from the table and ran into the corridors with the rest of the masses of people. Fae and vampires mixed together into a brine of chaos as everyone fought each other en route to the actual battle. I saw Dregon from the corner of my eye as he pressed ahead into the crowd, knocking people out of his way and not caring which side of the fight they were on. Fortunately, he didn’t see me. I tried to stay low and duck beneath the level of shoulders as I made my way in the same direction that everyone was pushing toward.
When we emerged at the opening, it was nighttime, and it was the surface.
How stupid of them to try to attack at night, I thought. It would have been a much smarter idea to attack Athan’s forces during the day and have the advantage of the surface battleground. Now, they would all pour out of his stronghold and fight under the dark sky. I hoped that there was some other aspect to this plan that I was missing, but a feeling in my gut said that it was probably Cassius’s impatience to wait any longer that had led to a rash decision to launch into attack carelessly.
I looked out at the battle going on around me and saw that the fae were hopelessly outnumbered. Athan’s throng of assailants was swarming and surrounding the fae. Some of them they killed, and others they rounded-up for capture. I watched as some of the fae who were in the kitchen with me fell at their hand, and others were knocked down and dragged away. The grisly scene that played out before me looked just like the paintings that hung in Dregon’s bedroom with victorious vampires standing atop of mounds of the dead fae.
I searched desperately for any sign of Cassius or Quinn but couldn’t see them. I did, however, spot Sen. I weaved in and out of the clashing bodies and ran up to her.
“Sen!” I screamed. “Thank God, I found you.” If we hadn’t been engaged in a bloody battle, I would have thrown my arms around her and hugged her until my shoulders hurt.
“There’s no God to thank,” she said with a smirk. “We don’t believe in that kind of nonsense. You can thank Quinn and Cassius for this.”
“Where are they?” I asked as I tried to stay close to her as fighting bodies and weapons threatened to push between us.
Sen drew back a small hatchet and landed it right in the center of a vampire’s ribcage as he approached. I was pretty sure hatchets couldn’t kill vampires, but I was also pretty sure that I knew very little about anything that was going on. Maybe it was imbued with some sort of magic or something.
“They were just behind me,” she said as she pulled the hatchet out of his chest. It made a sickening, splintering sound when she yanked it out. “They’ll find us. We need to get out of—”
Just as soon as she grabbed my hand to pull me along with her to run, a dull, silver blade thrust out from the center of her torso.
“Sen!” I screamed as she fell forward, and I caught her in my arms.
Dregon grinned at me as he stood over her body and pulled his sword out from her back. Before he could reach down to grab me, Cassius lunged at him and knocked him unsteadily from his feet.
“No, no, no,” I cried as I held Sen in my lap while the pandemonium roared around us. I didn’t know what to do. I cradled her head in my arm and used my other hand to put pressure on the spot where blood was now drenching all around her. She closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed, but I knew she couldn’t be dead. She was a fae; she had magic and powers. Sen would be okay; I just needed to get her out of here so we could help her. Quinn would be able to heal her; I just needed to get Sen to her brother.
Cassius reached down and yanked me up by my arm so hard that it practically came out of the socket.
“We need to go,” he said in a loud panic. “Now!”
“No!” I shouted as I tried to pull my arm back from him. He was much stronger than me, and he wasn’t letting me go. “Let go of me! We can’t leave Sen here! We have to bring her with us!”
Cassius looked down at her, and then he grabbed me by both shoulders to put his eyes in front of mine. “She’s gone, Mara. Dregon’s sword is iron. Sen is already gone.”
No, I don’t believe that. She isn’t gone. She can’t be.
I wrestled against
him and refused to leave without Sen. Quinn came running up as soon as he saw me, and when he looked down and saw his sister’s body at our feet, a look of indescribable sorrow overtook him.
I cried and pulled away from Cassius to drop down to my knees and lift her head into my lap again. When he pulled my arm up again, I got ready to scream at him, but then I looked up and saw that it wasn’t Cassius this time; it was Quinn.
“Mara,” he said through tear-filled eyes. “She’s gone” Quinn gently pulled me up to my feet as I laid Sen’s head softly back onto the floor.
“We need to go now!” Cassius screamed as the fae became increasingly overwhelmed and the surface flooded with vampires as thick as a pack of locusts.
I couldn’t move my feet. All I could do was stand there and stare at Sen’s beautiful face while the tears streamed down my cheeks and a hollow pit formed in my stomach.
Cassius picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as he ran. I stared back at Sen’s martyred loveliness on the floor until I couldn’t see her anymore, and all I could see was the bouncing view of bloodied bodies around me.
“The way back to your dwelling is blocked,” Quinn said to Cassius as they ran.
The sound of fighting was getting farther away now, and my ribcage was starting to burn both from knocking against Cassius's shoulder as he carried me and from the acid crawling up from my stomach.
“There’s nowhere for us to go. Athan has captured or killed most of my people now. The few who may have managed to escape won’t be enough to protect her.” Quinn sounded defeated.
I knew that his heart was breaking for his sister, but he couldn’t give himself the luxury of grieving yet.
“The only way to save her is to get her out of Mystreuce,” Cassius said. “You can do it. You have the power to get us to her world using your shadow magic.”
“Cassius, you know that comes at a steep cost.”
“I don’t care what the cost is. We’re out of options. Do it.” Cassius barked the order to Quinn as he set me down onto my feet.
