Vindicta (The Liquidator Wars Book 1)

by Kindra Sowder

  Instinctively Tarren and Bayn looked over to Brynn, their hands under the table on the blades. They were both revolted at Leo’s effrontery, but Brynn looked from one to the other calmly and then turned to Leo.

  “Of course,” she said, surprising all of them. Bayn stared at Leo through slitted eyes. She could have struck him down just for asking.

  Both Terran and Bayn stood so that Leo and Brynn would be able to exit the booth. The band was just launching into a slow number, full of haunting notes and atmospheric chords. It had a relaxing quality. Brynn thought to herself that if it were up to her, it would be titled something like, “Sojourn to Hell.”

  Once on the dance floor, Leo pulled her to himself so closely that she could feel his manhood through the material of both their clothing.

  “What a delight you are, Brynn. So delicious. I know this is a business dance because you understood I meant that I would only share certain facts about our angel brethren with you and you alone. Nevertheless, I am enjoying our proximity. You are a treasure for the taking, oh Daughter of the Electi, with many suitors. One wonders how much longer you will wait to choose.”

  “That would be up to the Gods themselves,” Brynn told him evenly.

  She knew if they were alone and he had the power he would like nothing better than to ravage her, spill her virginal blood on the floor and ravage her again. Then spend the rest of his immortal life bragging about it. This, among many other reasons, was why she remained a virgin. She couldn’t stand the thought of any male being able to say that they had “had” the Warrior Brynn.

  For all that she had sacrificed, she was proud that none could.

  For some reason, a cloud passed over Leo’s eyes as he continued to gaze at her. At the same time, his cocky countenance became sad.

  “I had to get close to you to be able to use one of my gifts--it allows me to see into the future, and I can tell you this. The first male you will lay with will have angel blood, and it grieves me deeply to tell you this because it will not be me. The second thing I need to tell you is that this union will be born of necessity. There are wounds beyond your ability to heal, and an angel will heal you. The third thing I must tell you is the most important of all, Brynn, so listen very, very carefully.

  As there is a cost with everything, this union will cost you dearly. Your children will either be Gods or Monsters, and you will be hunted by a powerful witch who is jealous of your union. This is what I envisioned as we drank the blood of the Fae Folk.”

  Brynn felt repulsed, inwardly coiling from Leo’s embrace just as the last strains of the macabre dance song faded.

  “So, that’s it? Some sort of prophecy from one not known to be a prophet?”

  Leo looked stunned for only a moment.

  “All angels are prescient to some extent. Maybe this is a revelation to the high and mighty Electi, but even Fairy children know this.”

  “Why have I not heard any of this from my Oracle Natalia?” Brynn retorted, raising her voice so that Bayn and Tarren were immediately out of their seats, hands on their weapons and glaring daggers at Leo. “Surely she would tell me these things, and would have informed me of them long ago.”

  “Why she might keep these things secret from you I cannot know. But here is another sad fact that you don’t seem to have in your possession. Angels cannot lie. Even the Fallen ones. It’s kind of a ‘thing,'” he finished, backing away from her.

  She looked perturbed, and before her well-documented mercurial mood turned to anger, he wanted to distance himself from her.

  As Tarren and Bayn came up to flank her, she crossed her arms across her chest.

  Brynn gave Leo one last long stare, just to make sure that he was thoroughly intimidated.

  “Come on boys, let’s go,” she said to the Twins, turning so that her hair swung in an arc as they left the noise and the smoky ambiance of the club behind them.

  ***

  “Please, Gwenyth,” Ryder said in a low voice against the side of her throat as he kissed it and then trailed upwards to make circles with his tongue in her shell-like ear.

  “Gwenyth, I have never wanted anyone so much. Never touched anyone as beautiful as you are, my Princess.”

  Gwenyth could only moan as, moving down lower as she lay on the soft grass in a far corner of the maze, he lifted her skirt and began trailing his tongue up her inner thighs. He breathed slowly and the fact that she, the little sister of the Exalted Warrior Brynn Tremaine of the Electi had managed to arouse a grown ass man to a frenzy of passion, thrilled her beyond words.

  In fact, she considered it her finest accomplishment. Let Brynn fight all the battles she craved. She, Gwenyth, had discovered her own true source of power. She was intoxicating to men. She was glorious in the fact that at that moment, Ryder would have killed anyone, promised anything, and done anything to be able to fuck her.

  As much as her own body told her it wanted the same thing, that particular scenario just wasn’t going to happen.

  For one thing, she was sure, as a Daughter of the Electi, until an appropriate match was found for her and was approved by Brynn, her virginity was considered some sort of prize. Gwenyth was sure that Natalia would pick up on it if she had sex with anyone and run right to Brynn immediately.

  When Ryder’s mouth found the valley between her thighs, she arched her back so that he could open her nether lips with his tongue. This had become the time each day that she lived for. It was sex that she could have without sacrificing her hymen.

  Ryder knew precisely how to give her an orgasm. Several if she wanted them. And he was slowly teaching her how to pleasure him the same way. She had become addicted to his prurient attentions and on days when it was impossible to have a secret meeting it annoyed her to the point of vexation.

  Time passed, and when the bell in the garden chimed to remind everyone of the dinner hour, he got up from and helped her to her feet. She smoothed her skirt back down over her knees.

  “Gwenyth Tremaine, Daughter of the Electi, will you marry me?” he asked, still breathing heavily from their encounter.

  It was difficult not to force himself on her. The Gods knew he had never been one for delayed gratification. But the fact that he was the first male ever to view the beauty between her thighs, the fact that he knew what her sacred parts looked like, smelled like, and tasted like was in his mind an astounding accomplishment. For now, it was difficult not completing the act, but he found it easy to pleasure himself when he was alone just recalling what he knew about her.

  A large part of his enjoyment was enjoying the fact that Brynn was clueless of their intimacy. Sometimes when he was going down on Gwenyth, he fanaticized that he was going down on Brynn.

  The truth was, his ultimate fantasy was to have them both.

  But right now Gwenyth was looking at him lovingly, so he took her gloved hand, the withered one, and brought it to his lips.

  “Ryder you have to stop proposing to me every time we meet,” she said softly but earnestly. “If you keep it up it won’t seem as special when I am finally able to accept.”

  “I can’t help it,” he told her, kissing the tip of her nose. “I want you to be my wife. I am hopeful, but of course, if it upsets you I will at least try not to bring it up.”

  She allowed him to cup her nubile breast as he leaned in for another kiss. She didn’t know how lucky she was that he was determined to be patient. He had promised the Vanguard of the Liquidators, the Tenebris Lords, Gwenyth’s baby that could result from their planned union. The rewards he had been guaranteed for such a prize exceeded anything he might have felt for his own spawn.

  So far they were pleased with his progress. He’d made Gwenyth fall in love with him, and as it turned out, her knees weren’t locked together like her business-minded older sister’s apparently were. Brynn had become such an asexual icon among her own people that he’d even heard rumors that she preferred women and that Calyx was her partner.

  Well, his instincts told him
that wasn’t true. He had seen glimpses of a woman’s heart in their leader but also knew he had absolutely no chance of winning her favor. She was the greatest leader they could hope for, but as was usual for female leaders of nations, she had no social life and wasn’t trying for one.

  Well, he would take the younger sister then, and the rest be damned.

  Chapter Ten:

  Fighting Fate

  Creed lay on the elaborately beautiful bed in his brand new prison and, even though no iron bars or shackles kept him there, it was still a prison of sorts. Even though the walls were covered in golden paint and the sheets on the four-poster bed were white, high thread count Egyptian cotton, he knew a prison when he was within its walls. Just because it was beautifully decorated didn’t change that. Especially since there were two massive vampire guards on the other side of the door and magic layering the sheetrock. He had no illusions of freedom. Not even close.

  He could not leave the room, and the dinner that was being served downstairs had been brought into the chamber and treated without care despite Brynn’s insistence he dine with them, everything having sloshed all over the plate in a mixture that looked vile but smelled amazing. The meal was made up of braised beef, green beans that were perfectly cooked, and garlic mash potatoes. He devoured them as he had not eaten since just before his capture.

  All the while, his thoughts always went back to the oldest Electi daughter. Creed imagined her body as she stood in front of him in the basement holdings before he was moved, her beauty even more legendary than he had heard of before he developed his dark obsession when watching her fight against his own people. His body responded quickly, his muscles tensing, and what was between his legs stiffened.

  “Shit,” he muttered to himself as he shook his head.

  He walked into the personal bathroom located within the room, leaving the door open, and moved to the shower. He desperately needed a shower.

  The hum of the rising sun ran through his body, and he was confident the hot water of the shower would relieve his tension. He started the water and watched the steam come from behind the shower curtain in wave-like smoke, making the golden paint on the walls and the room so surreal he could swear he was dreaming. But no, the empty ache in his chest and the throbbing sensation below his hips told him differently despite short he was still wearing from the Electi surgeon. He stripped out of them and left them on the floor, which was harder than he would’ve thought as they were coated with sweat on the inside from Brynn’s torture.

  Without even touching the knob that indicated the addition of cold water, he stepped under the spray and submerged his head underneath it. He hadn’t even searched for a towel to dry him once he was finished.

  The urge to touch what protruded from between his legs pulled at him as the image of Brynn’s high and taut breasts moved through his mind, but he resisted. He had been able to keep himself from doing so because he would not allow himself that release until he could have her, completely and utterly. Heart, soul, and body and he would not stop until he did.

  What had started as a dark obsession before had turned into something he didn’t want to admit to himself. He adjusted his standing position within the tub and leaned forward to place his hands on the tiled wall in front of him, hanging his head so that the water came down in a rush down his neck and back. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the expansion of his lungs beneath his ribcage, and the way his heart beat when he thought of the Daughter of Electi beneath him. Hell, even just the thought of her in the same room with him made his knees weak and shaky.

  Creed knew for a fact that the princess had not been mated to anyone, or even had the pleasure of a man. There was no mistaking it when he smelled the scent of lust in the air when she looked at him, the glint in her eye, and then the quick disappearance of her sweet musk replaced by irritation. There was no way possible for a woman of her stature, a pureblood vampire, to fall in love with someone like him. A Liquidator son. A breed of various creatures brought to life by the Creator. A Liquidator, a vampire, and an Angel. All of them a blasphemous mixture inside of him with urges he had to fight nearly every second of every day just to follow in the footsteps of his full-blooded Liquidator father.

  Footsteps he no longer wanted to follow because, if he did, it would mean the downfall of the vampires and the House of Electi, and he would not see Brynn fall to that part of his nature.

  ***

  Calyx waited to speak to Brynn until she returned from Abaddon. The sun was beginning to rise, and she could feel that familiar hum of it just below her flesh, causing her to rub her arms as she watched Brynn, Bayn, and Terran enter the house as she stood in the foyer with the door wide open. Calyx was tense about the Liquidator warrior being able to live within the upstairs of the mansion instead of a cell down in the basement where he was best contained, but it wasn’t up to her. It was a decision best left to Brynn, as she was the leader of the house and the brigade she served under, but it didn’t stop her from expressing her opinion.

  Another of Brynn’s soldiers came to stand beside Calyx, awaiting orders as Brynn and the Twins approached.

  “Get the others and make certain that each blackout curtain is shut and that no sunlight comes in. I am shocked they haven’t been lowered yet. I know you idiots can feel the sun rising,” Brynn said, her voice filled with irritation at the incompetence of her own staff.

  Brynn ascended the front steps with the Twins behind her, flanking her as if they were still out within the city and she was in danger. For all Calyx knew she was. She hadn’t seen Brynn before she left, but Brynn was decked out in leather breeches and halter top and looked as if she fit in within the club she just left. She would’ve most likely drawn the eyes of that infuriating angel Leo that ran the place.

  “Brynn, I need to speak with you,” Calyx began as Brynn entered the foyer and Bayn shut the doors behind them all.

  Brynn unhooked the top of her halter and let the straps fall, using one hand to hold the portions of fabric covering her breasts up. Brynn wasn’t one for modesty despite being a virgin and nothing, or no one, stopped her from doing what she felt like, which was one thing Calyx admired about her.

  “About what, Calyx? I really need you to help get the manse ready for the daylight, if you don’t mind,” Brynn asked, almost an order but not quite.

  Calyx followed her as Brynn ascended the steps toward where her bedroom was located, the soldier she ordered to prepare for the oncoming sunlight parting ways at the bottom of the staircase. Tarren and Bayn went with him. The house became a flurry of activity almost immediately after his departure, curtains and thick velvet drapes dropping down to their rightful place covering the windows for the day.

  “It’s about your prisoner,” Calyx admitted as they began down the hallway.

  “And what about him, Calyx? I’m busy.”

  Yes, Calyx could tell that her leader and life-long friend was indeed in a rush, but that didn’t stop what she was about to say next. They approached Brynn’s bedroom door, the door leading to her prisoner right beside it with the guards in their positions on either side of the door, backs straight and hands on their pistols strapped to their hips. Brynn barely used them, but her guards were always armed with them.

  “I don’t think moving him up into the manse was wise. Your judgment when it comes to this man isn’t sound. He needs to be placed back down in the basement where he belongs, or he needs to leave. Kill him or send him back to his Liquidator friends, but do something.”

  Brynn stopped in front of the door with her hand on the knob, and Calyx could see the tension move up her back and into her shoulders as her hand squeezed the knob, causing it to creak slightly. She turned toward Calyx and the crimson in her eyes was even brighter than usual against the lights in the hallway. Her lips, painted in red lipstick that contrasted beautifully with her pale complexion, were set in a thin line letting Calyx know she had deeply angered her friend.

  “I’m so
rry --” Calyx began, but Brynn stopped her with a wave of her hand and a look that could kill.

  “I do not like my judgment being questioned, Calyx. Especially not by you. That mark on his body changes everything and, after speaking to Leo, things will have to change if we are to keep gaining information from him. Do you understand me?”

  Calyx was shocked by Brynn’s words, and she felt the cold shock of her anger hit her square in the belly, almost enough to knock the air out of her lungs as she stood there.

  “Uh, uh, yes. I do,” Calyx stammered as she swayed slightly.

  Brynn squared her shoulders and pushed her bedroom door open, taking a step inside and pulling the leather halter top off of her body to drop it onto the floor.

  “Now, if you could be a dear and close the door when you leave. I need to change and speak to our new housemate,” Brynn said in a breathy tone. She stepped over the top and moved toward her walk-in closet on the other side of the room. She moved much a like a predator at that moment.

  “Yes, Daughter of Electi.”

  Calyx did as she was asked and, as she closed the door, her body began to shake with anxiety and fear. She glanced at the door beside Brynn’s, the dark wood popping out against the light blue of the walls and the plush white carpet underneath her feet.

  She sighed with indignation and knew she wouldn’t question Brynn’s decisions. She had never steered the House of Electi in an undesirable direction during her reign. Ever. And Calyx didn’t see that happening anytime soon. The only problem was that Creed, the Liquidator, now shared a wall with her best friend and sister in arms, which could make for a dangerous situation that could very well endanger both sisters. And Gwenyth was so impressionable and naive.

  She needed to find someone Brynn would listen to whose reasoning she could not deny. The image of Natalia’s blind eyes fluttered into her mind, and she knew whom she needed to seek out in that instant. The Oracle would know what to do.