Did she realize I took the room next to hers? Does she care?
Days ago, before I was stupid enough to go to Talila, I would’ve answered that with a resounding yes. Now?
Gods. Every time she stares at me, it’s like she’s looking right through me. The only time I saw a tiny hint of her affection towards me is when she found me with my legs cut off.
My throat tightens with the strangling panic of my inner wolf. All just at the memory of not having my legs. Sad fact though? If that’s the only way to get Soleria to feel something for me, I’m going to have someone do it again.
Dear gods, I’m truly pathetic.
Not that I care. All I want is the chance to have that female back.
As well as her blood.
A breath hisses out of me. Thinking about her blood is all it takes for my canines to elongate, my throat to burn with need.
Excitement surges through my entire reproductive system.
Fuck my life, now it’s not just about being inside her. Not just about gorging on her blood. The image of Sol round with my children . . . fourteen millennia of being a commitment-phobic bachelor, and now suddenly I’m frothing at the mouth to impregnate my female.
Fucking bondings.
Fucking matings.
I press the heels of my palms into my eyes, growling.
Shit. Shit. I’m going to end up jumping her. She doesn’t want to even look at me, yet at this rate, if I don’t get myself under control, I’m going to—
The sliding doors leading to Sol’s room open with a loud whoosh.
Mouth agape, I drop my hands.
My female saunters into my room, naked as the day she was born.
Unlike the day she was born, her Erencei markings are bright against her pale skin. Her eyes are light blue on black, a shade that hypnotizes me in the moonlight. The markings hug her cheekbones, the sides of her face, down, down, framing that mouthwatering body, all the way to her thighs.
Her nipple piercings glint.
That dark red strip of hair leading down to her pierced clit . . . “Oh gods, baby,” I moan, cock kicking beneath the covers, leaking precum like it’s about to go off.
What is she doing in here? What is she . . . Sol doesn’t reply or even react to my voice and that’s when I realize the differences around us.
The differences in this room.
Sonofabitch. It’s another dream.
Soleria stalks closer, her intent clear.
My dick and balls tighten, already on the verge. “Soleria. Baby. Baby, can you hear me? It’s another dream. It’s—gods, baby girl, I’m trying to hold back, but if you don’t stop, I’m going to give it to you. All of it.”
She ignores me, walking closer. When she stops next to the bed, right next to the panting, starving werewolf on it, she finally blinks and looks down at me. “I . . . Ianthen?”
Gods forgive me, but she’s run out of time.
Wrapping a hand around that sexy, marked thigh, I tug her on the bed with me, forcing her to straddle me.
It’s like hitting her with an electric shock.
Shaking from head to toe, she gasps my name, pushing feebly at my shoulders. “Ian, wait. Don’t do this.”
Maybe I would listen, if that entire statement hadn’t come out as a needy moan.
Groaning, I position her over my erection. “I’m sorry baby. I can’t stop this. Never needed anything like this.” I impale her on my cock, forcing her to take me to the hilt.
We both shout at the phantom pleasure.
Sol’s walls tighten around me, her body seizing, her breath stuck in her throat.
Fuck. Coming already?
She sobs as her body clutches mine, forehead-to-forehead with me. “Ohmigod . . . oh fuck . . . you have no right to do this. Uhn! No right.”
Pistoning into her, I pull her closer, trying to meet her stare. “You’re everything to me. Everything.”
“That’s impossible,” she cries, sounding torn between the pleasure and the tears I hear in her voice. “No one acts that way. Who does that to someone that means everything to them?”
My heart tearing apart, I yank her in for a kiss. “An idiotic, fourteen-thousand-year-old male whore who’s set in his ways,” I whisper against her lips. “I’m so fucking sorry. If you only knew how far I’m willing to go to make it up to you.”
Shaking her head, she squeezes her eyes shut. “No. No. I’m not going to let you do this to me again. You don’t deserve my heart.”
“But I need it anyway. Please baby. I’ll fight to earn it back, but please. I lo—”
She’s out of my arms in the blink of an eye.
“Sol!”
She trips over her feet in her hurry to rush away. I see her eyes fall to the cuffs around my arms right before she vanishes.
Rushing out of the bed, I run into her room, heart hammering.
Empty.
She’s nowhere to be found.
The next day
Either the cuffs are broken . . .
Or my symptoms are progressing fast enough to equal a major problem.
For all I know, it was those symptoms that caused that dream last night. Was Soleria truly in it with me?
Jerking awake, realizing it wasn’t real, unleashed the most irrational physical reaction in existence.
First came the images. The ones of her and Ricky. The ones where I have to watch that cockroach take my female in ways I haven’t gotten to, yet.
The still-foreign sensation of bile pushing up my throat was the only warning I got that a Gnetica was needed. Sol was in the other room. She couldn’t hear me throwing up.
Blood again. Not bile.
Thankfully, it only lasted for a few hours. It took me another four to make it out of bed and gain enough strength to dematerialize all the blood.
By the time I made it out of my room, I was back to normal. At least on the outside.
So maybe the cuffs aren’t a total bust.
Zex appeared midway through it. I lowered the energy shield long enough to let him in. One look at the Carrie routine I was pulling and he went straight for Enzyria in search of Vedlyl.
There’s one thing I know for sure after what my sister’s gone through: inevitably, it won’t be just Ricky I’ll see her with. I’ll see all of them. The ones I’ve met and the ones I’ve haven’t.
The irony of this bullshit isn’t lost on me.
Appearing on the first floor of the behemoth building, I try to see if I can spot Sol.
“There you are.”
I turn at the sound of Zexistr’s voice. “How’d it go?”
“He promised to have something new for you in a few days.” He halts next to me, that long, bitch-ass hair loose over his shoulders. In his hands is a Big Mac he’s happily chewing away on.
“Didn’t just stop at Enzyria, I see.”
He shakes his head, taking another bite. “You know I can just materialize one.”
“I also know your obsession with getting the ‘ready-made fresh ones’, as you call them.”
“You seem grumpy.” The last of the burger goes into his mouth in one shot.
It’s a skill only Keiros seems not to share.
“Like I don’t have a reason to be. How the hell is Vedlyl going to get something new for me in a matter of days? He’s good, but with all he’s juggling, that’s still a stretch.” Even with Nylicia’s help.
“Don’t know, but I’m not the only one that took a quick detour.” Crumbling the burger box, he mentally disposes of it. Another Big Mac is in his left hand next second.
“What do you mean?”
“The queen was exiting the medical wing when I arrived.”
The queen? “Why would Dimithinia need to be in the medical wing?”
“Indeed. That is the question, isn’t it?”
At the wave of his hand, we begin walking together. Demons rush all around us, no different from a mortal skyscraper lobby in the morning. Except these beings have their whit
e-and-black markings and most are dressed like something out of a human sci-fi. This realm is usually open to otherworlders; that doesn’t stop most of the demons from watching us go by.
Especially the females.
If they only knew what this dark red, long-sleeved t-shirt is hiding.
“Zex, hop to it. They’re waiting for it.”
He laughs around another bite. “Bitch, I’m as unavailable as you are.”
My eyes trail over his profile. He’s looked ill for three millennia now, ever since that oracle gave him the medallion that strangles every sexual drive in his body. His base form is Hyren. His next form? A vampire. After that comes demon. He can cycle through any species he’s ever encountered, but his top three are all species that are dependent on sex in some way or form.
“It’s not healthy what you’re doing, you know that right?” I ask him in a low voice.
His chokes out what sounds like a sarcastic chuckle. “No one knows that better than I. Trust me.”
“You’re putting all of us in danger. Including my new R’ma.”
His eyes flash dangerously, pupils widening. “No offense, Ian, but at least you have yours within arms reach. You can fix what you broke.”
“Zex, you aren’t . . .”
“I’m not what?”
“Nevermind. I don’t know what’s up with your freaky, constantly mutating body, but that sick fixation can’t be anything other than the symptoms of something.”
“Finally someone gets it.”
Stupid fuck. “I hope you know that, for the sake of this physical plane and everyone living on it—including my female—finding a way to get that human back for you has become one of my main priorities.”
“Of course. Speaking of females, there’s yours.” He points at a side of the lobby with upside-down metal obelisks hanging from the ceiling. The crystal tips touch the tips of smaller, crystal pyramids on the floor beneath them.
Soleria slowly reaches out to touch one of the crystals. Prismatic light reflects off her face in a burst of colors.
Like a total sap, I slow to a stop, my chest feeling too full.
“Are we ready to leave yet?” Ismini asks Dyletri.
Evesse wraps her arms around Zeniel, whose face is buried in her neck like he wants to drink from his R’ma in front of everyone. “Seriously. I’m ready to sight-see this bitch down!”
As if sensing my stare, Sol’s head jerks up. When her eyes land on me, they narrow with suspicion.
She stomps towards me, her mien set in stubborn lines, hands fisted at her sides.
Zex and I exchange a look.
“What the fuck did you do now?” he mumbles.
“I . . .”
Soleria walks right up to me, grabs my bicep over my t-shirt . . .
And yanks my sleeve up.
Her eyes go wide as she takes in the cuff and for a second I believe that she knows what they’re for.
Exhaling a sharp breath, she drops my arm and glares up at me. “Stay out of my fucking dreams.”
Zex’s head slowly turns towards me.
“You came into my room. And it’s not like I’m controlling it, but . . .” Leaning down a bit, I smile at my R’ma. “If that’s the only way I can have you? I won’t even try.”
The little growl she throws me vibrates straight down my spine. “Don’t test me, Hunt.”
Biting my lip, I resist the stupid urge to bounce on my feet with excitement. “Bring it, Conquest.”
“You’re going to wish you hadn’t said that.” One last glare and she spins away from me, head held high like the queen she’s about to become. She heads over to join the group, without realizing what she’s done.
What she just admitted.
She was in that dream, coming like a maniac all over my cock.
“This makes the Watcher dangerous as hell. Ian, focus all your energy on finding Spari. For Cyake and for me. The sooner I can look upon her face, the better. Then I’ll finally be able to crack open this bullshit mystery.”
I turn to a contemplative Zex. “Why?”
His gaze is shrewd. Calculating. “You said you’re not controlling it.
“What do you mean?”
“Shared dreams are not that common anymore, not since I killed the Oneroi.” Malice twists his expression, even as he scoffs with chagrin. “There’s a real chance Nylicia is the one controlling both your dreams. There’s already a multitude of accounts of her invading them. If she’s now somehow controlling them? That puts in her in a whole new class we don’t even know about.”
“You don’t trust her one bit either, do you?”
“Not. One. Fucking. Bit.”
Chapter 34
SOLERIA
F ury is such an acidic thing to carry around. It sits inside you, burning through your cells, destroying and warping you one atom at a time. One of the most destructive forces a person—a being—could ever house within.
Unhealthy. Unproductive.
I’d get rid of it in a blink, if I could.
It’s not fair that this was given to me unwillingly and now it’s my burden to bare.
Yet, that’s how it works, doesn’t it? Everyone always talks about moving on, how it’s our responsibility, blah, blah, but it’s not that simple. When we’re hurt by others, it isn’t just a hole in our hearts that’s torn open. Something else is put into that hole, a darkness that we don’t ask for.
One that’s nearly impossible to destroy.
With every moment I allow myself to feel it—to feel anything—that new voice becomes louder.
More insistent.
No one ruins us. Strike. Control . . .
My friends keep asking why I’m so removed from reality. From them.
This is why. Feeling anything doesn’t work for me.
I understand an evil male housed these powers long before me; that doesn’t mean I won’t beat them.
Subjugate them.
Little ol’ Soleria De Leon from Queens, New York was never good enough to deserve consideration. Her heart took so many slashes in the last eight years that it’s a miracle it still beats. That pathetic mortal wasn’t respected or appreciated enough to warrant some sympathy for her battered heart.
The future empress of an entire deadly species will be respected.
No one will ever hurt her again.
To successfully become that female, I must gain control of my new powers. Becoming a villain isn’t in my new, altered life plan.
I lock my emotions down, trailing the two happy couples ahead.
Always smiling. Touching.
I wonder if my girls realize how lucky they are. Eighteen-years-old, their lives just beginning even by immortal standards, and they’ve already found the loves of their lives. Something most people never find during an entire lifetime.
I sure as hell won’t.
Doesn’t matter that I’m only twenty-six, that I just began the immortal leg of my own life.
To love, one has to be able to trust. For someone like me, that ship has officially sailed.
Steps sound too close to my back. Ianthen and Zexistr, trailing me as I’m trailing the couples up front.
I rush across the heavily populated streets. Which makes perfect sense. I was told the mind demons are the most technologically advanced species this side of the galaxy. Not only are their lifespans potentially unlimited, but their medical advancements must be off the charts.
Demons of all ages watch us with hawk eyes. As promised by Asgaix, we’ve been left alone, but their curiosity of us is palpable.
Especially about me.
Their whispers don’t go unnoticed.
Conquest.
Once evil.
Still vicious.
Forbidden hybrid.
None like her.
The reawakened Mavrak, God of Vengeance, walks mere feet from me, but it’s me that draws their attention.
Whatever. They’re ignored. As well as the purring, warning rumble I’m
sure came from Ianthen.
At the sound of it, everyone in our vicinity stops whispering about me and goes about their day.
Tilting my head back, I take in the colossal skyscrapers. The pinkish sky. The lights, the A.I. wandering the streets—a sci-fi, technological wonder if I’ve ever seen one.
Minus the flying vehicles. Or any type of vehicle, to be honest.
“There’s no cars of any kind,” Ismini comments, picking up on it as well. “No kind of transportation.”
Dyletri pulls her in even closer. I can only see his profile, but it’s hard to control my intake of breath at the sheer amount of love in his gaze as he kisses her cheek. “Everyone can dematerialize here, so there’s no need.”
The black, evil fissures in my chest expand at the sight of them.
I rip my stare away just as a light drizzle starts to pour from the barely cloudy sky.
A demon girl in a futuristic, shiny red dress passes by, her white-and-black eyes focused on the device on her hand. On her feet are chunky, black ankle boots. On her head, what looks like a surprisingly human bowler hat accentuates her dark brown hair.
But it’s her umbrella, of all things, that steals my breath away.
It’s perfectly round, a crystalline creation that reminds me of the cape Asgaix wore. Drops of water ping off it, as prismatic as all the reflections here. Little drops of beautiful color.
Eve watches the demon girl walk by with round eyes. “I want one.”
Chuckling, Zeniel pinches his mate’s chin and brings her face to his. “I’ll get you one. But you can’t take it back to Earth with you. No otherworldly technology is allowed there.”
Eve squeals and kisses him excitedly.
I need to get out of here. There’s too much love bouncing around between those two couples. How do I face it in the aftermath of all I’ve lost?
I can’t.
“I’ll catch up with you guys later,” I call out and randomly dematerialize, hoping like crazy I don’t fly out of this dimension.
Regaining form, I look around me and breathe a silent sigh of relief. It’s obvious I’m still in Katgin, even though this seems to be a less affluent area than the heart of the city. Not that it’s any less beautiful. The streets here also have those tubes of light embedded into them. The buildings as well.
Blood Drenched Conquest (Ryze Book 3) Page 29
