A Demon's Wings: Vice College For Young Demons: Year Three

by Marie Mistry

  This time, I punched him.

  And, strangely enough, he let me.

  “You hit like a girl,” Enzo complained. “I taught you better than that.”

  Blaze, meanwhile, had transcended anger. “Mention my mother again, I fucking dare you.”

  Enzo was not going to back down. “Aww, still scared of the Malice who used to beat the shit out of you?”

  The Assassin went flying, not from any form of PK, but from a single, well-placed punch from Blaze. My Wrath mate sprang after him, wrenching Enzo back by his long blonde hair, only to lose his grip when Enzo nimbly slipped behind him into the shadow realm and back to trip Blaze up.

  I sighed as the last of the fucks I had to give slipped away. “You know what, carry on. You two obviously have some stupid testosterone issues to deal with. Have at it.”

  And with that, I turned on my heel and left. It wasn't my job to sort out their issues when they seemed determined to fight anyway.

  When Blaze had calmed down, he would talk to me. And Enzo … well, I'd already accepted that there was very little chance of him ever changing.

  Chapter 22

  Over a week passed before I saw Blaze again, but Rina reassured me he was just licking his masculine pride. He no longer showed up to walk me back to my room in the evenings and whenever I reached out along our bond, all I could feel from him was a sense of impatience.

  His sudden absence made me grumpy to the point of distraction. My work suffered, much to Professor Saxon's delight, and so did my sleep, which must have shown because Rezinax asked me if I was feeling alright in Healing.

  Blaze was the cause, yet he would only respond to my queries down our bond with curt, single-word answers and excuses about being busy.

  So it was a surprise when, on Friday night, I walked out of the castle, Bane and Daron as company, and straight into my Wrath mate. The sight of him stopped me in my tracks, and my emotions must have been broadcasting down the bond because Daron kissed me on my cheek and handed back my bag.

  “We'll give you two some space,” he said, dragging Bane away.

  Before they were completely out of earshot, I heard Bane complain, “No fair, I wanted to listen to someone other than me being in trouble for once.”

  “It's rude to involve yourself in matters that don't concern you for personal enjoyment,”

  I didn't hear Bane's reply but I could see his eye roll in my mind. I smiled slightly as I turned my attention to my Wrath mate, who seemed almost uncertain as he regarded me.

  “I get that Enzo probably revealed some things you'd rather no one know about,” I began. “But avoiding me for over a week was a really dick move.”

  He had the good grace to look contrite. “I know. It was an asshole thing to do and I'm sorry. I was looking into Rutia's intelligence about the Syndicate's plan to poison you. I've thought about it from every angle—even consulted the damned assassin—and, unless they're planning to poison multiple innocents at the same time, it's almost impossible. All the food in Vice is communal so, providing you don't accept food from dubious sources, the only other place to poison you would be at the Assembly. But Leonie prepares your food there and she would never betray you.”

  A lot of my anger deflated at that, and I bit my lip as I considered it. “I agree. I've thought about it and talked it through with the others. Hannibal and Ajax are closest to me at the Assembly. Even if they'd rather not get their hands dirty, their unshown would be there as well.”

  He opened his arms. “Can I have a hug?”

  I sighed and moved into his embrace. “Are you going to tell me everything?”

  He nodded. “If you want, I'll take you to my flat. No more secrets, no more hiding things.”

  I was silent for a second, thinking the proposal over. Where was this coming from? “You've spent the better part of two years trying to keep me away from that flat,” I mused. “What changed?”

  Blaze ran an exasperated hand through his hair, mussing the already tousled red locks further. “I've spent that time arguing with myself about whether or not you can handle that side of me. I suppose, I've gotten to the point where I just need to know, one way or another. If you don't like it, I'll sell the place and we'll never talk about it again. If you do…” he trailed off.

  I let the matter drop and switched to the other thing that had bothered me. “And the fights?”

  He grimaced. “They stay, for now. I want to be able to provide for my mate. Besides, Hadrian is just getting them off the ground. He's using the money to fund a legitimate duelling arena and a gym which teaches free self-defence classes to abuse victims.”

  My heart softened and I squeezed him tight. “Hadrian's running them? Does Lulu know?”

  Blaze went as scarlet as his hair. “I didn't say anything.”

  “No, you said it. I'm not keeping this from her. Either you make Hadrian tell her or I will. I've had enough of mates keeping secrets from each other to last me a lifetime.”

  His grim nod of acceptance made me relax a fraction. Despite what I'd said, I didn't want to be the one to break it to Lulu that her mate was fighting in an underground duelling ring.

  “I have a car waiting outside the Gatehouse.” He offered me his hand.

  “Now?” My voice got higher pitched and I coughed to clear it. “Seems like quite short notice. Where is it?”

  “Newcastle. It's on the river. My grandmother lives there and she finds the sound of the water soothing.”

  “Your grandmother lives there?” In his flat dedicated to sex toys?

  He choked out a huge belly laugh. “It's a normal flat, Sweetness. I don't have dildos and floggers hanging from the pot racks. My bedroom, however…”

  I smiled weakly. “Yeah, okay. It's just Kain talked it up so much, I just assumed…”

  Blaze thought for a moment. “Why don't you call him and he can come with us? That way he can stop talking shit about things he knows nothing about.”

  I knew what it really was: an offer of a safety blanket in the form of one of my other mates. Blaze knew I was nervous and was trying to make me feel safe. But this was what I'd been nagging him for since before I even knew what I was asking.

  Nervous or not, I wasn't weak.

  I took his still-outstretched hand and pulled out the key I'd taken to wearing on a necklace to keep it away from Bane's sticky fingers. “Maybe another time.”

  His wicked grin should have made me pause but I was too far gone to back down now. Besides, Blaze was my mate and he was more committed to my safety than I was half the time.

  He wouldn't hurt me.

  As if he was reading my mind, he pulled me closer into his body, his arm coming around my shoulders protectively as we walked silently under the portcullis of the gatehouse and toward the waiting car. He opened the door for me, his eyes glinting as he shut it behind me, climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine.

  The journey into the city took a little under an hour and I spent the time gazing into the fields as they passed. It wasn't until Blaze pulled into an underground garage and we climbed out of the car that I gave in to the urge to look at him. He seemed more confident than ever, his red hair glinting under the florescent lights and those green eyes only grew more intense as they stared at me.

  “This way,” he said, his calm voice at odds with the heat in his gaze.

  We didn't even touch as we walked towards the elevator in the corner. Not so much as a brush of his arm against mine as the doors sealed us in.

  “I can just show you if you want,” Blaze suggested. “You don't have to do this.”

  I frowned. “I want this.”

  He let out a long, drawn-out breath. “Fine. Then you need to pick a safe word, in case things get too much for you.”

  I nodded. “Mango.” He raised a brow and I felt the urge to explain. “I love mangoes … It was the first thing I thought of.”

  Whatever he might have said in reply was cut off by the quiet ding of the elev
ator reaching the floor. The doors slid open, revealing the softly-lit hallway, lined with dark wooden doors. Entering his apartment was a dark blur and he didn't bother turning on any lights, instead using a ball of pyrokinesis to light our way down another hallway and to another door.

  “Did you want to do the honours?” he asked, gesturing to the key I still clutched.

  I nodded and slid the key into the lock, turned and stared at the darkness within.

  Blaze gave me a tiny push and closed the door behind us. He flicked the light switch as he extinguished his pyrokinetic flame, and the legendary apartment was finally revealed.

  The middle of the room was taken up by a huge bed, the bright red sheets not disguising the leather restraints clipped to the bed posts. The walls were covered in racks of things I didn't have the guts to examine too closely and … was that a cage in the corner? I hurried my eyes past that and onto the sex swing beside it. Trying to figure out where all the straps and cuffs on that piece of apparatus would go distracted me until I heard a noise which drew my focus back to my mate.

  Blaze was standing in front of the bed, unbuttoning his jacket.

  “Whenever you enter this room, you will immediately strip, put your clothes in a pile and kneel until told to do otherwise. Is that clear?” His voice had dropped an octave and he barely looked at me as he shrugged the black jacket off and his hands went to the hem of his t-shirt.

  My eyes left their perusal of the room and zeroed in on the abs being revealed in front of me. “Yes.”

  His eyes snapped to me as he chucked the shirt to one side, leaving him gloriously bare chested. “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, Sir,” I corrected.

  There was a pause where he looked at me expectantly and I bit my lip when I remembered I was supposed to be stripping.

  It was possibly the least graceful strip of my life. Nerves made my hands shake slightly. I was down to my bra and panties when my eyes focused on something familiar.

  A pole.

  I couldn't help the smirk that graced my lips. Blaze had a pole and he didn't know I'd spent years doing pole dancing after I stopped my ballet lessons.

  “Eyes on me.” His dark voice had me biting my lip in response.

  But my smirk remained. That little bit of familiarity in this room gave me courage as I smoothed my bra straps down my shoulders and reached behind me to unsnap it.

  When I had finished, I knelt as he'd instructed. Naked on the tiled floor, I met his gaze.

  And I melted.

  He was holding a riding crop, testing the force of it against his palm as he approached me.

  “Do you remember your safe word?” he demanded, using the crop to spread my knees apart.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He reached for my arms and folded them behind my back, each hand holding the opposite arm and forcing my breasts out.

  “This is how you will wait when I bring you in here to play. Is that understood?”

  That crop traced a line down the inside of my thigh. Stopped. Traced a second line along the curve of my breast.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good girl,” he said. “Now, for your hesitation and for making me agonise over whether or not to bring you here, I'm going to punish you.” That crop snapped lightly against my ass in a tease of things to come. “Go over to that bench and lay yourself over it.”

  He used the crop to point out a strange bench to my left. It was short, thin, waist-high and cushioned with black leather. At one end, there was a padded circle, like on a massage table, and below the main bench, four smaller rests with cuffs attached protruded from the sides.

  I stood on tentative feet and made my way over to it. I had to kneel on the smaller rests before I could bend at the waist and place my head into the circle. My ass was almost hanging off the edge, and I felt more exposed than I had when I was kneeling by the door. Blaze must have been able to see everything from where he stood behind me. I jumped when he touched my ankle, soothing the skin there with his rough hands before he wrapped the first cuff around it.

  He didn't speak until I was secured to the bench by all four limbs. I tested my bonds, finding only the slightest give in them.

  I wasn't going anywhere unless he let me.

  Why did that thought make me so wet?

  “I think ten with my hand and ten with the crop ought to start us off nicely,” he said, as his palm caressed the curve of my ass. “Count them.”

  The sound of the sharp smack reached my ears before my body processed the pain. I gave a startled cry, then remembered I was supposed to be counting.

  “One, Sir.”

  “Thank me for it,” he demanded, as his hand made contact with another loud snap of pain.

  “Two, thank you, Sir,” I cried, then moaned as that sting started to morph into a strange heat that travelled straight to where my clit was pressed against the bench.

  Another sharp sting, followed quickly by that same delicious buzz. “Three, thank you, Sir.”

  The tension I'd been holding started to ebb as I relaxed. This wasn't so bad. I was actually starting to like it more than I should but I'd think about that later. Right now, all I could think about was how his hands would stroke the abused flesh between spankings, fingers dipping so close to where I needed them at my core, but not giving me the satisfaction I craved.

  The fourth slap was harder but the heat that followed had me trying to grind myself down onto the leather beneath. “Four, thank you, Sir.”

  Blaze's hand rubbed the sting away. “Mmm, your ass is going to be the perfect shade of pink when I'm finished with you.” His palm travelled down the crease of my ass, fingers pausing over the pucker of my back entrance before sliding further down to my pussy. “So wet. You really do like this, don't you?”

  I moaned and squirmed, trying to get those fingers where I wanted them. “Yes, please, Sir.”

  “Keep counting.” His fingers disappeared and moments later, my ass lit up with another open-handed smack.

  “Five, thank you, Sir." Smack. "Six, thank you, Sir." Smack. "Seven, thank you, Sir.” My skin felt on fire, but my breasts were heavy and I ached for something more. Each smack was slightly harder than the last, bringing me higher as the zing seemed to travel straight to my core. “Eight, thank you, Sir." Smack. "Nine, thank you, Sir.”

  The final smack was so hard my breath caught, the edge of orgasm so close I could almost taste it before I remembered I was supposed to be counting. “Ten, thank you, Sir.” I was panting, straining for that nirvana I could feel before me but Blaze disappeared entirely.

  My body mourned the loss.

  “You look absolutely perfect,” he complimented, as I heard him moving around behind me. “I think you deserve a treat for taking the first half of your punishment so beautifully.”

  I felt the cold trickle of lube down my ass, followed by something thin and hard pressing into my back entrance. The burn from the stretching muscle merged with the warmth from my glowing ass and I moaned as my body stretched to accommodate the widening toy. The girth steadily increased and I strained against my bonds trying to simultaneously take more and move away.

  Another light tap on my ass had me stilling. “Don't move,” Blaze ordered.

  I moaned again at the burn, then sighed in relief as the flared end of the toy settled against my ass.

  Then I groaned as the toy started to vibrate. “Oh god.”

  “I won't make you count these.”

  That was all the warning Blaze gave before I heard a snap.

  I screeched as a lick of lava exploded across the backs of my thighs. Blaze paused and the buzz in my ass turned up a notch, balancing out the pain with pleasure. “Do you want to use your safe word?”

  I shook my head in defiance. “No, Sir.”

  For once, he took me at my word. Another fiery lick of the crop followed and then another and another. My mind couldn't seem to process it as I rode the razor's edge of pain and pleasure towards a rapidly approaching o
rgasm.

  When Blaze stopped, I cried out in denial. “No, please, Sir. Please, more.”

  His sharp intake of breath made me shudder, then the sound of a zipper lowering filled my ears.

  “Good girl. You can come.”

  He plunged home inside of me.

  The fullness of his invasion, the feeling of his thighs against my still tender ass and the buzz of the vibrator still in my other hole sent me straight over the edge.

  I was still coming down when Blaze started to move, roughly pounding into my greedy sex with a force that delighted me. His hands moved from my hips to my wings, stroking the bases of them before moving up to grab my horns. My spine arched as his action forced my head backwards. His next thrust hit my cervix and I screamed out my pleasure.

  He didn't stop. The slapping sound of flesh against flesh was almost drowned out by my moans of pleasure and his grunts every time he bottomed out inside of me. The vibrator in my ass kicked up a notch and my whole body quaked with the need to orgasm.

  But it was the last, hard slap to my ass that sent me over, my muscles contracting and wringing his orgasm from him as I did so.

  I felt the rush of power but it did nothing to stop how sated and exhausted I felt as he withdrew from me. I was so out of it that I barely noticed him carefully removing the restraints and toy and massaging my limbs before lifting me from the bench and carrying me out of the room.

  I was as limp as a rag doll as he drew me a bath and deposited me in the warm water. The feeling of his hands massaging at my scalp with shampoo made me moan and he took tender care washing my horns and my wings. I was so warm and comforted that I fell asleep, barely waking when he tucked me into bed and curled around me like a protective blanket.

  Chapter 23

  When I woke the next morning, Blaze's limbs were so entwined with mine that it took almost five minutes to unentangle myself. Onyx and Ivory had appeared sometime while I slept and they helped me gently lift Blaze's arm out of the way and extricate myself from the bed. They flew beside me as I slipped my uniform back on, tiptoed across the plush rug and carefully opened the door on silent hinges. I moved slowly, partially because I didn't want to wake my mate and partially because my stomach was churning in a way that made it clear any sudden movements would not go down well.