by Marie Mistry
“Of course.” I smiled, watching as he reached into his pocket, staring into my eyes.
The vibrator came to life between my thighs and I almost melted, knowing it was him controlling it.
“Kain, Blaze, Aeron and I have the remotes,” Jin whispered in my ear, and the vibrations kicked up a notch as I curtseyed to him as well.
The vibrations increased further as I looked at the two of them, in their black coats with colourful trims. Jin’s embroidery was in ice blue and navy with a cornflower blue cummerbund, whilst Kain’s was gold and pearl against his purple cummerbund.
“She’s looking at us like we’re eye candy,” Kain began, cocky grin in place. “That’s horribly objectifying of you, Sunshine.”
The vibrations went up even further, and my legs started to tremble, then they shut off all together and I held back a moan of frustration. Kain took my arm in his and led us straight to the dance floor just as the announcer called the first dance.
I was never more grateful to Alicia Pruitt in my life than when we took those first few steps and I knew exactly what to do. Kain whisked me through the first dance, handing me over to Daron for the second. Aeron appeared out of nowhere just when I was planning on sitting down for a breather and whirled me back to the dance floor. He looked stunning with his pale grey embroidery and white tie, though he kept his jacket buttoned so I couldn’t see the sash of dark blue around his waist. The whole way through the dance he stared into my eyes, always seeming on the verge of saying something, but never quite getting the words out. Jin cut in in time for the fourth dance before I could figure out what Aeron was thinking. For all his skills, Jin was an awful dancer, and it required all my attention just to follow his lead. I really thought I might have a chance to sit down after that, but Bane asked me to dance almost as soon as I let go of Jin’s hand.
“You need to stop doing this,” I whispered as the vibrator flared once again, making my legs shake and my cheeks flush.
“Doing what?” he asked as we circled one another, hands barely touching.
“Leading me on,” I said bravely. “The roses, the endearments…”
“You’re not going to claim you’re one of those girls who doesn’t like roses?” he asked, his teasing grin in place.
“I love roses,” I admitted grudgingly, swirling my long skirt around the both of us. “And I know that blue ones mean something unattainable.”
“And yet, I can’t seem to help myself,” Bane admitted with a frown, and the vibrator pulsed so hard in my panties that I nearly missed a step.
“Neither can I,” I confessed, turning to glare at Kain and Jin for a second before I continued. “Bane, I’m willing to accept the risks.”
“I won’t ask it of you.” He shut me down before I could continue. “You have enough to worry about and as a Knight I’ve vowed to protect you.”
I sighed as the dance reached its inevitable conclusion and we bowed heads to one another. Bane strode away, perhaps needing to put distance between us. I watched him go before I turned towards the tables, only for the vibrator to suddenly explode in my panties.
“Now, I know you weren’t thinking about leaving the dance floor when you still have one mate left,” Blaze whispered in my ear.
I smiled, turned and curtseyed to him. “I would never,” I promised. “But if you don’t turn that off, I won’t make it to the end of the dance.”
Blaze obliged with a dark grin that promised delicious things, and danced us both straight to the middle of the dance floor. I understood immediately that it was to prevent the crowd around the edge from taking too much notice of who I was dancing with, but I didn’t mind, because I got to dance with him. His black coat was decorated with a severe line of amber and crimson piping around the cuffs and collar, and his cummerbund was the deep red of wrath. His tie had a pin in with the same design as Rina’s choker – the symbol of a seer. And along his breast pocket were medals that I ached to know the stories behind.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he twirled me in close to his chest, making me feel ever so small and feminine in comparison.
“More than okay,” I promised. “I’m glad I got to dance with you.”
He smiled. “Every Knight is on high alert,” he pledged. “There’s no indication of any threats. Daron’s been scanning everyone he meets for guns.”
I smiled. “I trust you,” I assured him, looking into those amazing green eyes. “I know you’ll keep me safe.”
He nodded stiffly.
The buzzing started again, and I looked over to the side of the room to see Jin and Kain smirking at me. I rolled my eyes at them, the flush on my cheeks reappearing as the last pulse landed straight over my clit.
Chapter 38
When Blaze’s dance ended, I was getting too warm, so I wandered outside to the grounds. People were still arriving through the main doors, and several others were strolling along the gravel paths, chatting quietly amongst themselves. So it took a while before I found a stone bench out of their way and sat down to rub at my aching feet. It was dark and cloudy, but still warm enough that I didn’t feel cold. I watched the couples strolling around the grounds in the soft lamplight for a few minutes.
“Now, what’s a treasure like you doing all alone on a night like this?” a husky voice asked from the shadow of the castle.
I stiffened slightly. “I needed some air.” I rose to my feet and curtseyed slightly in greeting.
A man stepped from the shadows, tall and well proportioned, with wide shoulders and narrow hips. His frock coat was embroidered with black and blood red patterns that reminded me of snakes; it was buttoned closed over the cummerbund that would have told me his caste. There was a tension to his posture that was at odds with the relaxed air of the rest of him, and my eyes travelled past his chiselled jaw to the hoop in the upper shell of his ear, past the silky ash-blonde hair in a ponytail and then finally into a pair of dark blue eyes.
“Plenty of air out here.” He kept moving closer to me, cornering me against the bench. “Forgive me, I don’t usually draw things out, but there’s something unique about you.” He sighed, within arm’s reach of me now. “I’m terribly sorry for this, Pretty Darling.” He had a thick London accent, and it coloured his words, distracting me from their meaning for a few seconds.
My whole body was tense, and I went to move away, but his hand raised upwards, drawing a gentle line across my neck before I could dodge.
Aside from the move being incredibly creepy, nothing happened, and I stood there staring at him.
“Please leave me alone,” I whispered, dodging out from his arms.
The man stared at me and repeated the motion without touching me.
When nothing happened, I turned and fled, the entire creepy encounter making me bolt. But I’d only gone a few paces when he literally rose out of the ground in front of me.
“I don’t like this.” He raised his hand and I saw the air ripple with the tell-tale sign of a powerful PK missile.
It never reached me.
“Lilith!” Aeron’s voice called to me, but he sounded far away.
The man looked at me. “This is far messier than I usually like,” he grumbled, drawing a short blade from a pocket in his coat. “You’re worth a lot to me dead…” He approached me again and stroked his hand against the skin of my cheek. “So soft…”
I tried to shove him away with PK, but my power failed me.
This was my seventh mate, I realised as he lifted the knife and pressed the tip of the dagger against the bare skin of my abdomen, still stroking my face.
“It’s so tempting just to indulge,” he muttered, more to himself, the knife keeping pressure on my skin. “Your skin is like silk.”
I shuddered.
“Lilith!” Aeron’s voice was closer now.
The dagger dug in, the edge so sharp I didn’t even feel it till a few seconds after it broke the skin. “Tell your irritating boyfriend to go,” he ordered, his fingers tracing a pat
h from my cheek to rub against my lips.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
“I’m debating killing you, Pretty Darling,” he whispered against my ear. “So, if I were you, I’d do what I was told.”
I tried again. “Aeron,” I whispered.
“No, the name’s Enzo,” the tall stranger muttered.
“Lilith!” Daron’s voice had joined Aeron’s.
“You’re the last of the seven,” I whispered. “My Gluttony mate.” And he was going to kill me.
“Hmm.” His fingers stroked back down my neck. “This really is messier than a measly few million is worth.”
“Lilith!” Kain and Jin both called.
The man – Enzo – sighed, and the dagger slid in deeper. “That is getting tiresome.”
Aggression was creeping into his voice, and my fear cranked up a notch.
He exploded back from me so fast that I almost lost my balance. I was thrust behind Blaze, his red hair swaying in the breeze.
Enzo never hit the ground, instead melting into thin air and stepping back out of another shadow. “You distracted me, Pretty Darling,” he crooned. “That wasn’t a very nice trick.”
“He’s the seventh,” I said to Blaze, just as my other mates arrived.
“He’s also a bloody assassin,” Blaze cursed. “Go inside, Lilith.”
He didn’t take his eyes off Enzo, who looked so completely blasé about the entire situation, as though there weren’t six men glowering at him with murder in their eyes. They were so different - Enzo’s slim elegance to Blaze’s muscular power - but the confidence on the assassin’s face had me fearing for Blaze. Enzo flicked a hand carelessly at Blaze, who raised a shield just in time to deflect whatever invisible attack had just been aimed at him.
“We do not wish to harm you,” Daron began, in a cautious but calm voice. “If you are also Lilith’s mate, we can have a civil discussion. There’s a lot you don’t know.”
Enzo disappeared.
The rest of my mates whirled around, searching for him. They looked so intimidating like this that I almost took a step back from them.
“Pretty Darling,” his voice echoed out of the darkness beside my ear. “All dressed up for me.” Phantom fingers brushed against my hair and the bare skin of my back; I flinched away.
All of my mates froze in place, becoming living statues, as Enzo melted from the darkness right in front of me. I waited for them to do something, anything, but they didn’t move, stuck in place without even the ability to blink.
“Please, let them go.”
“Oh, you do beg ever so sweetly,” he crooned. “What are their lives worth to you, Pretty Darling?”
“Anything,” I whispered, locking eyes with Jin, who was opposite me, “Anything, if you leave them alone.”
“How curious.” He smiled, and it was a sinister, creepy expression. “Would you kiss me to save them? Let me touch all that silky-smooth skin? Let me kill you in their place?”
I clenched my jaw, and my eyes unwillingly met Blaze’s furious ones. “Anything.”
I saw Bane and Aeron’s eyes twitch, the only outward sign of the anger I knew they were both feeling. My eyes were drawn back to Enzo’s face, which showed surprise for a single second, but snapped back to boredom so fast that I barely caught the emotion.
“Good.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it. “I really should kill you, you know.” He shrugged as if he really couldn’t care one way or the other. “I’m not in the mood. Too messy.” He slid the knife into his jacket again and held out his hand, bringing a ball of pyrokinesis into being above it. “Mate me.” It was an order.
I stared at him, wide-eyed and uncomprehending, caught off guard by his change of tune.
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, I don’t have all night, and you want them to live, right?”
He reached backwards and made a line drawing motion with his finger again, only this time a line of red started tracing its way across each of my mate’s throats.
“Please, stop,” I begged. “I’ll do it.”
He raised an eyebrow, looking at the ball of pyrokinesis.
I made my own ball of fire and held it up to his.
The familiar pinching sensation in my chest grew as the two flames merged, but Enzo gave no indication of feeling anything, other than halting the invisible knives slicing through my mates’ throats.
“There’s a good darling,” he praised as the sensation released us both. “Now kiss your new mate.”
I pressed my lips against his as quickly and briefly as I could, hating the way the new bond between us purred in pleasure at the touch.
He smirked, but let me get away with it. “We’ll be seeing one another again very soon, Pretty Darling, don’t you worry about that.”
He looked behind me at something in the distance and rolled his eyes.
“I told you lot to keep off my jobs,” he announced, spinning me around and pressing me against his chest with one arm. I gasped in silent horror at the hardness pressed against my ass, and he took the opportunity to move his head down to sniff at my hair, almost completely ignoring the three men in suits who were approaching us as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
“Aye, but the reward just doubled if it looks like she was killed by jealous lover.” One of them – and I couldn’t see which one past the shadows that seemed to have intensified around us – spoke in a thick Scottish brogue.
“Tripled if she gets fucked up a bit first.”
“Since that’s not your style, why don’t you just hand her over to the specialists?”
Enzo sighed, making a slicing motion with his free hand. “You can call those three my mating gift to you,” he announced as the three staggered backwards, dropping to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. He paused and made a second slicing motion to our left. “And those two will make up for me running out on your birthday like this.” Another long sigh as two echoing thumps announced the death of two more. “I do hate making a mess.”
He melted into the shadows before I could even ask what he’d meant, leaving me in the darkness with the echo of his fingers still lingering on my skin, and a mating bond I didn’t want thrumming in my chest like a contented cat.
Cast of Characters
In alphabetical order by first name.
Key: P = Pride Demon E = Envy Demon L = Lust Demon GR = Greed Demon S = Sloth Demon GL = Gluttony Demon W = Wrath Demon U = Unshown
Aeron Saxon: (L – Aphrodisia) Gifted with Aerokinesis (air manipulation) and Atmokinesis (weather manipulation). Third year student, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Lilith’s mate, son of Aoife Saxon and Kellert Krossian.
Alicia Pruitt: (S – Tardiness) Elder of the Sloth Caste, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Sister of Calandra Pruitt
Aoife Saxon: (GR – Philomath) Gift – unknown. Head teacher of Vice College and mother of Aeron Saxon.
Arnold Carazor: (S – Indifference) Father of Lilith Carazor.
Astoria Braxion: (P – Narcissist) Mother of Lilith Carazor.
Bane Krossian: (GR – Acquisition) Gifted with Terrakinesis (earth manipulation) Phytokinesis (plant manipulation) and Crystallokinesis (crystal manipulation). First year student, commander within the Unshown Resistance, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Lilith’s mate, son of Leonie Karov and Kellert Krossian.
Blaze Inferna: (W – Violence) Seer. Gifted with Pyrokinesis (fire manipulation) and Fragokinesis (explosion manipulation). Head of security at Vice, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Lilith’s mate, older brother of Rina Inferna.
Calandra Pruitt: (GR - Selfishness) Professor of Etiquette at Vice College. Sister of Alicia Pruitt.
Circe Abrosiax: (P – Conceit) First year student. Daughter of Constantin Abrosiax.
Constantin Abrosiax: (P - Ego) Senior Judge. Father of Circe Abrosiax.
Cornelia (Nelly) Drabos: (L – Desire) Third year student, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Twin sister of Lucrecia Drabos.
&n
bsp; Daron Abraxon: (E – Possession) Gifted with Ferrokinesis (metal manipulation) and Electrokinesis (electricity manipulation). First year student, Knight of the Order of Shadow. Lilith’s mate.
Dorian McKinnax: (U) Servant at Vice College, Knight of the Order of Shadow.
Enzo Orfo: (GL – Indulgence) Gifted with Corporikinesis (body manipulation) and Umbrakinesis (darkness manipulation). Assassin. Lilith’s mate.
Egon Vrosis: (L – Desire) Elder of the Lust Caste.
Evan Fraxis: (P – Supremist) Gifted with Telekinesis (object manipulation). Professor of Combat at Transgression College.
