“That’s… optimistic,” Oz said, seemingly distracted. “Let’s not rely on that thought. I think it would be best if we plan ahead.”
“You’re right,” Ava said, folding both her arms across her chest. “Do you think we should go check on Isabel?” she asked.
“I tried, but she won’t answer the door,” he said. “But anyway, right now, we need to assign everyone their rooms. Ava, where would you like to stay?”
“I think it’s about time I stayed in the tower,” she said teasingly. The others stared back blankly. “Right, not a time for jokes?”
“Most certainly not.”
“Alright, I think we should spread out; Presten and Isabel already have rooms next to the dungeon… you and me, we can move a bit higher up,” she said.
“Sounds about right,” Oz said, folding both of his arms across his chest and shifting his weight to one leg. “Oh, hey, look who decided to crawl out of their cave.” Isabel smiled at him as she thumped her way down the hall. Her feet were clammy against the hardwood floorboards, but she couldn’t be bothered to put any shoes on.
“Hello,” she said, a smile plastered to her face. Her eyes immediately went to the five strangers standing next to Ava and she nodded at them graciously. “I see Ava has brought along some allies, welcome,” she said.
“Where have you been?” Presten asked, walking over to her.
“I’ve been reading,” Isabel said. “Oz, those books we found… I skimmed through them a little bit.”
“Gavin’s memoirs?” he asked, his eyes wide.
“No, I’ve left those till the end,” she said, flashing him a smirk. “I went through some history books, here, check this out.” She threw him the leather-bound book she had been reading for the past couple of hours. “This is… this is pretty interesting stuff. Did you know that Presten and my names are written in there?” she asked, a glimmer in her eyes.
“Of course they are! They don’t call them prophecies for nothing,” Oz said, flipping through the book without actually reading it. Isabel wondered why he was so disinterested. “Does it say anything about the final battle?” he asked.
Isabel felt her stomach churn at the mentioning of a final battle. “I don’t know, I haven’t come across anything about that just yet,” she said, shaking her head. Deep down, she didn’t really want to know. “Oz, I really think we should go back and look for that key.”
“I think we should… but first, let’s go down and see how the hostages are,” he said, nodding towards the trapdoor. It looked so ominous, as if something would spring out of it at any second.
“We should feed them,” Isabel said to Ava and Presten.
“It’s your turn,” Ava said slyly. “Just be careful… Gavin’s an aggressive one.”
“You’re telling me,” Isabel said, turning to look at Oz. But he was already gone. A few minutes later he came back with no less than four trays of food, stacked on top of each other. Isabel slid down the trapdoor and walked to Gavin’s cell. She just wanted to get this over with. After their last confrontation, Isabel was weary of how he’d react to her presence. Stop being so scared of him, what could he possibly do? She needed to stop being ridiculous. Isabel had Gavin right where she wanted him; she knew she had the upper hand. As she walked quietly to his cell she realized he was asleep, so she just set the tray down on the floor next to him and stared at his black mass of a body for a while before turning to leave. “Wait, what?” she whispered to herself, turning to look at him again. In the darkness, she caught a glimpse of a tiny glint on Gavin’s chest. She moved in closer, not sure if what she was seeing was real or just a figment of her imagination. She moved in closer and realized it was a key. Holy shit.
“Isabel, Isabel,” Oz whispered from the other side of the cells. Isabel jumped. She couldn’t let Gavin hear him. She crouched down and focused all her powers towards Oz; maybe, just maybe, she could get through to him.
Oz, Oz, listen to me, can you hear me? I’m inside your head.
The silence was too dense to bear. Somehow, Isabel was trying to penetrate this silence without being heard. I can hear you, Oz came through. For a moment Isabel couldn’t believe this actually worked. Had she been capable of telepathy all along?
Alright, I’m going to need you to hide… I think I found what we were looking for. She clenched her eyes and waited for an answer, but when she never got one, she figured Oz already got the message. The air was so still that even the sound of Oz’s breathing went unheard. She shouldered her way through the iron bars, her eyes still fixated on the small glittery spot on Gavin’s chest. The floor creaked beneath her and she wondered if Gavin would wake up. She wondered if any of the vampires would wake up. They all looked so weak. By the looks of it, some of them wouldn’t make it through the night. But Isabel needed them to hang in there; she needed to use them as bait for the council. Gavin wasn’t moving. His chest was rising and falling to the beat of his breath and when Isabel got close enough, she made sure that this was the key she was looking for. If Gavin kept it secure around his neck, then it must be valuable. She reached out and grabbed it, slowly pulling it off his neck. The rope brushed up against his skin and his head jerked to the left, as if he was being tickled. Isabel let go of the key. For a second, she thought she would run, but when she realized he was still asleep, she knew now was her chance. In one swift move, she snatched the key and took off, but before she could make a run for it, Gavin’s eyes shot open.
“Oh my God,” Isabel said, feeling his fingers tighten around her wrist.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, getting up. “Do you think I’m stupid, Isabel? Do you think I’m some kind of an idiot?”
Isabel wanted to run. Her eyes were darting back and forth frantically, and she let out a gasp. Suddenly she saw a pair of feet landing into the cellar. Presten.
“Who the fuck are you?” Gavin asked as Presten’s face swam into view. Maybe Oz was right; maybe the council really didn’t know what Presten looked like. “Isabel, you’ve got some explaining to do,” Gavin said, his grip on her wrist tightening. Isabel winced.
“Hey, you stay away from her!” Presten snarled. Gavin didn’t flinch.
“You think that just because you’ve got me locked up in here that I’m going to do whatever you want me to? Well, you’re wrong!” Gavin said, letting go of Isabel’s arm. She let out a squeal. “Izzy, honey, what’s wrong, are you hurt?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. Isabel looked at him and then looked away. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said again. “You know I wouldn’t do that… I just want you to mind your own business, that’s all.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she hissed.
“And what about this guy over here?” he asked, ignoring her. “Who is he and why have you brought him here?” There was silence. “My, Izzy, you’re still so gullible… always trusting the people you shouldn’t trust.”
“You don’t get to talk about trust,” she snapped. She realized he was only trying to mess with her head. Isabel recognized that now, and she was doing all that she could to stop it. She turned to Presten for help and he nodded at her, trying to channel all his energy towards her. Suddenly Oz appeared from the far end of the cell and it was three against one. Gavin’s eyes started drooping, like he was being hypnotized.
“I, I,” he stuttered, and then, without warning, his head drooped like a deflated balloon. Gavin was spent. There was no way he could resist all three of them exercising their powers over him. Isabel breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Well that was definitely… intense,” she whispered, grabbing hold of Gavin’s key. “Got it,” she said, flashing Presten a smirk. They climbed out of the basement and Isabel quickly made her way for the stairs. “Who’s coming with me?” she asked. Without much hesitation, Presten followed her, the two of them hurrying up the stairs like little kids going on an adventure. Oz sighed and turned around. Was this jealousy he was feeling? Either way, he deci
ded to mind his own business. Isabel was free to do whatever she wanted, no matter what he felt.
CHAPTER 7
“That must’ve been scary, what you did in there,” Presten said, looking at Isabel out of the corner of his eye.
“It was,” she said, shaking her head frantically. “And when his eyes shot open… that shit freaked me out.”
Presten chuckled. “I probably would’ve peed myself,” he said. “I hate to say this, but Gavin’s a scary motherfucker.”
“You’re telling me,” Isabel said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe I used to sleep with that guy.” There was silence. Isabel didn’t know if what she said was inappropriate, but deep down, she didn’t care. She knew she had bigger things to worry about than what Presten thought about her.
“I can’t believe you used to sleep with him, either,” he said, grinning. “You did a pretty good job, though, I’m proud of you.”
“I don’t deserve that, you guys did most of the work,” she said, looking at him through her eyelashes.
“I don’t think you give yourself nearly enough credit,” Presten said. “And I’m not just saying that… you’re way stronger than you think.”
Isabel didn’t know what to say. She wanted to believe him, she really did, but a part of her felt like he was lying. Isabel just wanted to step out of Oz’s shadow, to explore things on her own. But she knew that wasn’t possible: it was too risky. “I really appreciate you saying that,” she said after a long pause. “Right now, we just need to find Gavin’s room so we can try this thing.” Presten nodded. “I just need to remember where it was… oh, right there,” she said, pointing to that familiar swinging door at the far end of the hall. She pushed it open and stepped inside, immediately heading for Gavin’s closet. “Let’s hope it works.” The key rustled in its lock before the little door at the back of the closet creaked open. Isabel couldn’t believe her eyes. She pushed past some cobwebs, which hung from the ceiling like drapes, her knees bending involuntarily as the walls closed in on her bit by bit. “Hey, are you good back there?” she asked, struggling to turn her neck around.
“I’m okay,” Presten said. “I’m right behind you.” They were crammed in such a tight space that Isabel eventually found herself crawling on all fours. But it was not long before the rabbit hole of a passageway opened up again and Isabel found it possible to stretch herself out again. “There a light at the end of this tunnel?” Presten asked, peering over her shoulder.
“I think so,” she said pleasantly. “Just follow that glow.” Isabel stopped at the end of the hall. “Check this out,” she said, jumping out and landing on lower ground. She spun around, trying to take in what she was seeing. The ceiling arched over them like a dome; Isabel felt like she was stuck in a snow globe. She looked around and all she saw were books covering the entire length of the walls. “Presten,” she breathed. “Where the fuck are we?”
“I think we just unlocked Gavin’s secret library.”
There was silence. The place was so quiet, like a place of worship. “That explains a lot,” Isabel said after a long pause. “You wanna check it out?”
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” he said, his eyes darting from one bookshelf to another. “How old do you think this place is?”
“I have no idea,” she said. Isabel was still in shock. How could someone even hide a place like this? It made no sense to her. Her head was buzzing with questions, questions about Gavin and what he possibly could be doing with all these books. They lined every shelf, every inch of this library; Isabel didn’t know what to think. She got up on a stool placed usefully underneath one of the shelves and started skimming through the leather-bound books. All along they ran from black, to brown, to beige, to black again. Isabel grabbed one of them and started skimming through it. The Art of Mind Control. “I am definitely keeping this,” she said, tucking it under her arm and hopping off the stool. “Hey, check this out.” She tossed it to Presten and then went on looking.
“Are you sure we should be going through Gavin’s shit?” he asked, folding both arms across his chest. If anything, he looked weary. He didn’t know what it was about this place that freaked him out. Isabel looked at him like he was a crazy person.
“What do you mean?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “This place is a goldmine… look around you! We can’t possibly leave here without looking through his things.” She moved the stool and climbed up again, running her fingers along the line of books. She took them out, one by one, examining them carefully. “There are a lot of interesting titles over here… you might want to check them out.”
But Presten was reluctant. He moved in closer to Isabel, but his feet didn’t carry him far. She just stared at him, her eyes reeling him in closer. “Just hand me over those books,” he said, holding out his hands.
“Here,” she said. “Catch.” Presten grabbed the books and started to flip through them.
“This is— this is pretty dangerous,” he said, not taking his eyes off the page. “He has spells in here, mind control spells.”
“Which is exactly why we’re going to need those books,” she said with her back to him. Presten eyed her as she swayed back and forth between shelves; her curvaceous body was absolutely mesmerizing.
“You have a really nice figure, you know that?” he asked, shifting his weight to one leg. Isabel froze. For some reason, she hadn’t expected him to say that.
“Oh, I’m flattered that you think that,” she said coldly. But in reality, she could feel the fire boiling up inside of her. Her mind was conjuring up images of Presten fucking her in that library; that big, empty library. Her body quivered at the thought.
“That’s all you’re going to say?” Presten asked, putting the books down and walking over to her. His eyes were on her, she could feel them, but she kept trying to convince herself that she didn’t want that, that she didn’t want him. A part of her felt like she belonged to Oz, that nothing and nobody would ever compare to him. But she shook her head at the thought; since when did succubi get into monogamous relationships?
“I really don’t know what to say,” she said after a long pause. That’s it? That’s all you can come up with? “I mean, I do find you very attractive, Presten, it’s just that—”
“It’s just what?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing her body to his. Isabel let out a sigh. At that moment, she knew she wanted him, and she knew he wanted her, too. The hunger was tugging at her insides; she had never wanted anything so bad. But Oz lingered at the back of her mind. What was it about him that made her so reluctant to be with anyone else? She recognized that her desires were completely independent from her feelings for Oz, but she just couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was doing something wrong. Something didn’t feel right. But she knew she was going to go ahead and do it anyway.
“It’s nothing,” she said finally, pressing his head down to her pelvic area.
She caught a glimmer of a smile on his lips as his face disappeared, and she felt his strong hands grasp her from behind. The fabric of her robe slithered across her thighs as he nestled his nose in between them, pushing them apart, his hot breath against her pussy igniting the desire inside her even more. She kept her eyes locked on him; her fingers entangled in his hair, and she almost automatically draped one long leg over his shoulder.
It was all the invitation Presten needed. Her grip on his hair tightened and she threw her head back at the first touch of his tongue against her. She could feel how wet she was, how much she wanted him, and it was no secret to him. His tongue flickered slightly before his hands brought her hips closer to him and he buried his face in between her thighs.
Isabel couldn’t hold back the satisfied moan that erupted from within her. And why would she? They were alone in the library, with only the books to keep them company, and the thought of Oz locked too far back in her head to care. All she wanted now was more of what she was feeling, more of Presten’s tongue against he
r pussy, more of his hands squeezing her ass cheeks as he did things to her she had never felt before.
Soon she was rocking against him, both her hands now clutching his hair as she grinded, pulling him even closer to her with her leg. He responded with vigor, his tongue finding its way inside her, circling her clit, sending wave after wave of orgasm rocking through her body. She closed her eyes, screaming in pleasure, lost in this feeling of satisfaction.
Her eyes flew open when she felt her body being lifted off the ground, Presten pushing her higher up against the wall and throwing her other leg over his shoulder. Bolts of electricity shot up and down her legs as his tongue moved and for an instant she thought that she couldn’t take any more.
Presten turned around and let her slide down his body, Isabel’s feet finding the ground and her knees buckling. Presten grabbed her by the hair as she stumbled down in front of him and with one hand quickly undid his pants. Isabel’s eyes widened at the size of him.
Kissed by The Dragon: (The Dragon Lords - Book 2) Page 74
