The girl had been tight-lipped about her experiences these past two months, but in her delirium the other night, she’d muttered a name.
Chao.
The male whose finger she’d bitten off.
Daji marched to her throne chamber and questioned a few of her subjects. Rumors about this Chao had traveled far. He was but one lackey of many working for a much higher power and had approached several of them at various nightclubs.
Borrowing a short leather skirt and tight blouse from one of her maidens, she changed her clothes. Time to go undercover.
As she marched to the portal, a growl rolled from her left.
Damn, Price.
“Where the hell are you going, dressed like that?” He strode toward her, his eyes set as hard as his clenched jaw.
She shrugged and focused on the gateway. It shimmered and she shifted her foot forward.
“Answer me, Daji.” He caught her arm and jerked her back.
She tilted her chin in defiance. How dare he. “I don’t answer to you.”
“Today, you do.” Determination flashed in his blue depths. He’d not release her easily from his steel grip.
“I’m following a lead. Alone.” Though she emphasized the word, the rigid lock on his jaw didn’t lessen. Blast it.
“Nope, you’re not going anywhere alone.” His brows knitted together. “We had a deal.”
Sighing, she inclined her head in acquiescence, and he followed her through the portal.
Stepping out from the other side, she held him back. “You can’t accompany me. I must appear to be weak and vulnerable.”
“Some act.” He snorted, but she cast him a glower, cutting off his smart-mouthed protests.
Tugging down her blouse, she stepped into the nightclub, squinting at the deep bass and flashing lights. Faking uncertainty wasn’t going to be so difficult. After a quick survey, she found an open seat at the bar. She sauntered forward in measured, unsteady steps in her six-inch heels. Cautiously, she slid onto the stool, scanning the room for any man who might approach her.
“Whatcha having, darlin’?” A human male plopped onto the stool beside her, alcohol wafting from his breath. Ugh.
She shook her head at him and scanned the club for someone less inebriated. A sweaty hand squeezed her bare thigh. Jolting, she squirmed from the man’s grasp. “If you’re not interested in a drink, maybe I can offer you something else?” He slanted forward, his fetid breath fanning across her face. “A little lost?”
She held the air in her lungs so as not to inhale his stench, and nodded.
Though the pudgy male wasn’t what she was expecting, his beady eyes gleamed in gluttony. “Let’s get out of here.”
He latched on to her arm and hauled her to her feet, leading her out of the club. Behind her, she sensed Price’s burning stare.
Right. Her claws dug into her palms. Soon this male would discover she was the predator.
And he the prey.
***
That fucker better pry his slimy fingers off Daji’s arm in the next two seconds, or Price would snap them off and shove them up his ass.
A growl drummed in his throat. Daji had emulated the perfect piece of bait, but he didn’t like this. Too easy, too convenient.
He quickened his strides, not letting them out of his sight. They marched through the front doors, out onto the street. The man hailed a cab, and they both slipped inside.
Price eyed the row of waiting taxis and cloaked Horse instead, galloping full speed as he trailed after Daji.
Humans wouldn’t notice the enormous black stallion trotting through the streets. He was black against the dark night, so anyone else likely wouldn’t either.
After a few blocks, the taxi pulled to the curb in front of a tall concrete condo building. Price slammed on Horse’s brakes and sidled to the corner of the building. Unlike Daji, he couldn’t waltz in the front door. There would be cameras and guards monitoring the feed. He had to wait for her to gather information first.
He shuffled his feet while she strolled inside, followed by the large, pot-bellied man. The asshole better not lay a hand on her. An image of Naya’s bruises flashed through his mind and he clenched his fists.
Five minutes passed, then ten. “Fuck this.” He strode to the lobby. A woman balancing several paper bags of groceries climbed out of a cab. “Let me give you a hand.”
“Oh, thank you.” The middle-aged lady flashed him a smile while he stacked the bags into his arms. He followed behind her into the lobby, the groceries blocking his face, and carried them to her flat.
After she thanked him again, he sniffed and caught Daji’s scent. Following her trail, he rode the elevator to the tenth floor and stepped off, tensing as he strode to the door she’d passed through.
No noises muffled from within. Huh.
He twisted the knob—unlocked—and cracked the door open. The tang of fresh blood stung his nostrils. He froze for an instant before analyzing the scent. Not hers.
He sprinted into the room. Daji hovered above a slumped body, blood dripping from her claws.
“Damn.” He whistled low. She spun, whipping her claws toward him, but he ducked. “Hey, it’s me!”
“Oh. About time.” She stepped over the body and rummaged through the room.
“What are you looking for?”
“More than what he offered.” She sighed, shoulders sagging. “I can scent them. Females. They were here, but they’re gone. I’m too late.” Her hands fisted.
The anguish in her tone tugged at him. “It’s okay. We’ll find them.” He avoided the body, grimacing, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged off his grasp and crouched beside the safe in the corner. Placing her ear to the lock, she twisted the dial. The door swung open. Hmm, she was a locksmith too.
He hovered while she extracted the contents. A book and a piece of jewelry?
As he squinted at the jewelry, his blood iced. “That’s not possible.” The jade bead bracelet had one oddity. A single blue bead with a tiny horse carved into it. “Mum?” He plucked the chain from Daji’s palm and twisted it in his fingers. Impossible.
“Price? What is it?”
“I gave this to her for her birthday.” He’d concluded it had vanished along with her the night she’d died.
Why the hell was it locked in a safe?
Inhaling through his nostrils, he clenched the bracelet in his fist, fury and pain over his mother’s death blasting through him.
Daji’s hand closed over his fist. “What else do you remember about the night she died?”
“She tried to protect me from…something.” He closed his eyes, the blurry image of monstrous glowing depths burned into the back of his brain. “Something not human. I’m not sure what it was though.” Dragging open his eyes, he squinted at her, and at the bracelet. “What does this mean?” His throat was too tight, the grief constricting his breaths.
Daji frowned at him, then at the safe. “I fear whatever murdered your mother, it was sent by him.” She jerked her chin at the book. “The owner of this book. We locate him, we have her killer.”
***
The pain and anger rolling off Price cut through Daji. His rage for vengeance was great.
His grief, greater.
Here was the elusive redemption he didn’t wish her to perceive. The good in his soul he hid from the world, but couldn’t conceal from her. No matter how hard he tried to.
Charya must have been a remarkable woman, to have been worthy of such love.
The frustration over their argument dissipated, leaving only empathy in its wake.
Whoever had murdered his mother must have had a reason. Why keep the bracelet? Was it a trophy, or something else?
No point in burdening him with those questions yet. This discovery was shocking enough. Daji snapped the lock on the small black book and flipped it open.
The scrawling inside wasn’t in English, or any language she was familiar with. However,
she did know someone who’d be able to read this. “Let’s go home.” She squeezed his arm and marched from the flat. The male she’d killed was too low to be of any use to her. Yet when he’d drawn a knife, she’d had no choice but to slice open his throat. He wouldn’t be kidnapping any more of her people.
She’d ensured that.
Outside the building, they hopped into a cab and drove to SUTOL. She opened the portal for them and they stepped through, back to her palace.
She’d hoped to uncover more answers than she had. It had been a long night, and the search for the truth was just beginning.
“Well, good night.” She bobbed on her heels, but he nodded and strode away, not following her to her chambers.
Not that she should be disappointed. Ugh. She stamped down her irrational attachment to him and instead headed for the aviary, sending off a quick message via a homing bird to the Matchmaker. Old-fashioned but effective.
The woman spoke more languages than anyone she’d ever met. Doubtless, the scrawling in this book would make sense to her.
If not? Daji would have to determine how to decode these words. Because somewhere in these pages lay the key to saving her people.
Weary, she switched into a robe and climbed into bed, hauling the covers over her. Though she closed her eyes, sleep didn’t greet her.
The past did, instead.
Her husband, Dì Xīn, had died over three thousand years ago. The time didn’t hold weight, didn’t lessen the evils he’d made her face.
His hard, coal stare eroded into her soul. She shuddered and tossed, her dead husband’s sneer invading her dreams.
“Shh.”
A gentle pressure rubbed across her back. Jolting, Daji pried her eyes open. “Dì Xīn?”
“No, it’s me, Price.” His warm tone soothed her nightmares. “Who’s Dì Xīn?”
Awake now, she shook off the tension clenching her muscles. “The last Emperor of the Shang Dynasty.”
“Yeah, I know the name. Who is he to you?”
“My late husband.”
“Oh.” Price scooted onto the bed next to her, perching above her. “Did you really kill him?”
She shuddered, the memories crawling like spiders under her skin. “If you only knew the atrocities he committed.”
“Hey, I’ve read a few history books.” His teasing wink faded. “Legend handed you a lot of the credit.”
A scoff parted her lips. “Dì Xīn’s attempts at breaking me. After I realized I didn’t have to submit to him, he employed other measures to dominate me. He would present me with a victim and make an outrageous claim. Tying innocents to burning pillars, cutting off body parts. He declared he did those things to satisfy my curiosity.” She squeezed her eyes against the wave of horrific memories. “If I countered him, he would double the number of his victims. I had no choice but to remain silent and watch them tortured.”
“That’s fucking cruel.” Price rested his hand atop hers. “History gave you a bad rap but why didn’t you correct them after his death?”
She cracked one eye open. “Why should I have? After I freed myself from him, I assumed the throne and ruled my people. Yet the rumors of my brutality have kept my race safe. If any other species deemed my race weak, they would pick us off.” Slipping her hand from his, she shook her head. “No, Dì Xīn did me a great favor. He made me a feared leader. Quite possibly the sole good deed he ever accomplished.”
“Why kill him then?”
She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I was a youngling, twenty-three, when my goddess commanded me to wed him. As I matured, I refused to accept this fate. I’d had enough. His dynasty was on the verge of conquest, but I wished him to die as the coward he was, so I poisoned him, making him immobile while I set his palace aflame. He burned, just as his victims burned.”
Cursing me with his last words. She didn’t dare utter that truth. Dì Xīn had been mortal, but he practiced many black arts, made many pacts with evil spirits. In those final moments, he’d uttered a terrible and irreversible curse.
As surely as she’d killed him, he’d killed her. More slowly, though.
It had taken more than three thousand years for his curse to claw deeply enough into her to claim its completion.
Soon, though. Soon, he’d seize his final victory over her.
But not before she ensured the survival of her people first.
Daji really was a badass. Price reclined, regarding her, impressed. Youngling. That meant she would’ve been a teenager when she was forced to marry that middle-aged creep. His fists clenched at the image of the sonovabitch forcing himself between her legs. She would’ve been too innocent to grasp what he was doing. Though they were born into matured, adult female bodies, fox spirits didn’t even mature until twenty-five. Among their race, they weren’t allowed near human males for feeding, or sex, until then. It was basically like raping a child.
What kind of a goddess sent a kid to do her dirty work? The myths claimed Dì Xīn had insulted Nüwa’s honor or some shit and so she’d sent Daji to tear down his dynasty.
Dammit. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Over three thousand years ago, and yet, Daji still had nightmares.
He’d been pacing the hallways outside her chamber when a whimper caught his attention. Though he should stay away, he hadn’t been able to. He couldn’t change her past, or undo how that monster had made her suffer, but he could soothe her present.
Everything she’d done, she’d done for her people. Her selfless reign tugged at him. He’d never done anything selfless.
Certainly not attempted to shield a species from extinction.
He possessed the power to now.
Daji had been going it alone for thousands of years, but she wasn’t strong enough to keep at it by herself. He might lend her the strength to fortify her rule.
Yes, he would do this.
“Who did you shoot?”
Her blunt question jolted him. Right, he’d taunted his past in her face when she’d flaunted her murder of her husband. “Ah, Natalie Quan. My Lotus League partner. We were together, but let’s just say it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Do you always break up with women by shooting them?” Her quirked brow didn’t suggest repulsion at his actions.
He snorted. “No, it was…complicated.”
“You were ordered to.”
How did she guess? He stiffened.
“I’ve known the Matchmaker for millennia.” Her tone softened, swirling with empathy. “I am well aware of her methods.”
He puffed and nodded, swiping aside the distasteful topic. “Come here.” Wrapping his arms around her, he tugged her to his chest, enveloping her on either side with his legs. She tensed, but as he rubbed her shoulders, she eased into his embrace. “I may not be your King, but I’m going to be a kickass Consort.”
A smile tugged at her lips. Good start.
“Together, we’ll make it right.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. Inhaling against her soft skin, he murmured, “I promise.” She smelled amazing. Floral, sweet. Enough honey in her scent to tease Horse. His dick stirred too, which wasn’t surprising. He was always hard near her.
His conversation with Ryden echoed in his mind. Ice Queen. Yeah, she might be tightly wound, but damn, he loved it. He loved being the one to make her unravel.
Her pretty pink tongue swiped across her plump lips. Hungry, was she? Who was he to deny his Queen a feast?
Caressing the fingers of one hand across her neck, he lowered his other to the bulge straining the front of his pants, and tugged down the zipper. His cock sprang free, jumping for a chance to be inside Daji.
Hell. That wasn’t happening any time soon.
For now, this would have to be enough.
Leisurely, he wrapped his hand around himself, giving a good squeeze. He leaned forward and inhaled her luscious scent. “Hungry?”
She flicked her tongue across her bottom lip. “We shouldn’t.”
“Why not? We
’re not breaking any rules, Daji. Even if we were, I’d break a thousand to be with you.”
Her chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow pants. Definitely lusty. “You didn’t even complete the cleansing ritual.”
Going there, was she? “Are you really asking me to?” He tugged at the hem of his shirt. “If you tell me to strip right now so you can rub me all over with oil, I will.”
“No, no. Ah…” While she fumbled for words, he shifted, getting more comfortable.
“How about a reminder to tempt you.” Seizing his tip, he squeezed until a pearl beaded, glistening as he waited for her to transform his jīng into her fuel.
A low moan vibrated in her throat. Gotcha.
“One taste, Daji, and we can stop there.”
Her exhale eased from her on a shudder, and his cum evaporated into a blue mist she consumed. “Good girl,” he purred into her ear. “Want more?”
Her thick swallow and the curling of her claws into the sheets were answer enough. He grinned and pumped his hand more aggressively along his length.
She twisted in his arms, her wide, round gaze fixating on his cock. Her ruby lips tugged between her teeth, flashing a sharp fang at him. “I want to taste you.”
The image of her pretty lips on him made him grow even harder, the ache in his balls deepening into a slow burn. He didn’t let his lovers make demands. They did whatever he told them to.
His Queen demanded to pleasure him. Who was he to disobey?
Releasing himself, he framed his hands on either side of her face. Fuck, she was so beautiful. Her porcelain features as delicate as if they’d been hand-painted. Her body curvy and toned in all the right places. Yet it was the fortitude in her that snared him. He longed to crush her in his arms and protect her. With everything he was.
He’d never craved that before. Never hoped to be the Knight, never laid claim to anyone as his.
With Daji, his instincts urged to lay everything on the line, offer himself, and hope to the gods she would accept him.
Inside him, though, Horse stirred. Even as much as Daji entranced him, he couldn’t bring himself to hand over the reins. It was too risky. What if she used him and discarded him? This was why it was easier to keep people at arms’ length. Sooner or later, they would abandon him.
Reining Him In (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 5) Page 11
