“Thanks, I think.” The troll smiled.
At least, she thought it was a smile. With the large tusks sticking out the corners of the troll’s mouth, it was hard to tell.
Kitrina smiled back, just in case. “You’re welcome. After the way we got off on the wrong foot this morning, I figure I owed you. I mean, it’s not your fault you’re friends with Asla. She hates me in case you didn’t know.” She held out a hand. “I’m Kitrina Dragonheart.”
The troll female grasped it within her dark green appendage. “Everybody knows who yout are. I’m Maycee, just Maycee. Nice to officially meet yout. And just for the record, I’m not really friends with that barbarian chit. I was just unfortunate enough to sit next to her. We’d better get moving. Looks like our instructors are winding up to throw again.”
Another fireball, this time from the hand of Graydon Sunwalker, barely missed Maycee, and the scent of singed hair filled Kitrina’s nostrils. She gagged. “God Draka, I already hate this class.”
“Why’d yout take it then?” Maycee asked on the run.
“I had this crazy notion I could tip my daggers and arrows with fire magic along with the poisons I already use. You know,” Kitrina shrugged, “a kind of deadly triple whammy.”
Maycee laughed. “Me, too. Yout know what they say, don’t yout?” She grinned even wider. “Great minds think alike.”
Kitrina nodded as she once more blocked a fireball meant for her new friend. “Yes, they do. Now, all we have to worry about is surviving this challenge.”
“I sure hope so.” Maycee grinned. “’Cause it’s almost supper time, and I’m hungry enough to eat like I’ve got something to celebrate.”
Kitrina’s stomach suddenly grumbled, reminding her she hadn’t fed it since the night before. “Me, too.”
Chapter Eight
“What the open oozing pustules on the bare arse of a nose-picking, booger-chewing, bellybutton-lint searching, ogre organ player do ya think about that? Our lass looks ta be getting a might ta friendly with the troll lass if’n ya ask me. Why, that green-skinned, greasy-haired female could very well be one of Marquart’s minions for all we know.”
Zander rubbed his thumb and forefinger along the stubble of his jaw as he leaned back into the recesses of the hiding place from which they had chosen to watch the weeding out of the weak.
The last thing he wanted was for Kitrina to catch a glimpse of him and realize he was following her, watching her. Especially after he’d told her just a couple of turns of the hourglass ago that she could lead, that she could run the show. If she saw him, the fragile bond of trust they were just beginning to forge would be irrevocably broken. The thought worried Zander more than her choice of new friends.
“She knows what she’s doing, Leeky. We have to trust her, give her the benefit of the doubt…at least for now. That is, until she gives us a reason not to, which I hope doesn’t happen. She knows she has to put herself out there, make herself the bait for the trap. How else will we draw out the dwarf and the troll commanders? Make them come to us? Make them make the first mistake?”
The gnome shook his head. “It may make sense, lad. But that doesn’t mean I’ve gotta like it.”
****
God Draka, Kitrina was hungry. She attacked her plate as if she hadn’t eaten a bite in a week instead of just a day.
“I think Professor Titwilder is ever so dreamy, don’t yout?” Her female troll companion sighed as she twirled her black greasy hair around her green pinky finger and stared blatantly at the full table of men next to theirs.
Kitrina stifled a giggle and almost choked as she stuffed yet another forkful of wild rice and Academy-grown Brussels sprouts into her mouth. It surprised her that she’d had that reaction to Maycee’s words. She’d never been the giddy, giggly type. Even as a preteen, when most girls were known to be silly and it was expected, she hadn’t been. She’d always been focused and serious. What was it about spending time with this particular female that had her dropping her guard and actually enjoying herself when she knew she needed to remain vigilant?
She too quickly gulped a drink of water, and Zander stared at her with concern as she coughed.
“I’m fine,” she assured him as she followed Maycee’s gaze to Walaford Titwilder, their hand-to-hand combat instructor. “I guess I’ve never thought of Wally as dreamy.” She chuckled. “I’ve only ever thought of him as one of my many not-by-blood cousins. But more power to you if you think he’s dreamy.”
Maycee sighed again. “Oh. I do. Just look at those big, long, thick tusks. Yout know what they say about the size of a man’s tusks, don’t yout?”
Kitrina shook her head, but Maycee just kept on talking as if she didn’t notice. “That’s why I took his class in the first place, just so I could be close to him. It’s not like I’d ever have need of hand-to-hand combat with my bow skills. But I still wouldn’t mind having him around to protect me. After all,” she laughed, “I’m just a weak, helpless little female.”
Kitrina flinched. “I disagree. Women these days need to know how to protect themselves, even without the help of a man or a bow.”
Maycee shook her head. “Oh, I wasn’t implying that we don’t. I was just…” Her voice trailed off. “Yout were amazing today, by the way. I saw what yout did in the hallway…with yout dagger. Unless a true friend was in danger, I’d never have the nerve to do something like that.” She shrugged. “But then again, perhaps I’ll gain some courage of my own by hanging around with yout.”
The female troll’s smile was so sweet and genuine it almost brought tears to Kitrina’s eyes. She’d missed this, the companionship of another female, more than she realized. Though Zander’s sister Mia was her very best friend in all of Albrath, and the one person who knew all of her deepest, darkest secrets, Mia couldn’t be here with her at the Academy.
The barbarian heir to the throne and the spare weren’t allowed to be in the same place at the same time for more than a few hours, unless of course they were both at their castle home in Alaria or at a formal gathering like her deflowering. And since Zander was needed here at The Acadamy for the entire semester, Mia couldn’t be.
And her sisters, Lara and Tawny. God Draka, how she missed them. But they were safe at home where they belonged, at Castle Kuropkat, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
The sound of Maycee’s voice drew Kitrina from her musings. “Oh, I was told Professor Titwilder has a sister, though not many people have actually seen her face to face. I even heard she’s deformed or something. That she isn’t truly green and doesn’t have even the beginning of a nub where proper tusks should’ve grown. Is that true?”
The question surprised Kitrina, and she dropped her half-eaten pheasant leg onto her plate, her appetite suddenly gone. “Yes, he has a sister. Her name is Cerra, and I don’t consider her deformed in the least. But I won’t discuss her. That would be impolite.”
Maycee wouldn’t let it go. “But is she really a tuskless, pale excuse for a troll? That’s all I want to know? I’d hate to say something I shouldn’t in front of Professor Titwilder if I ever do get the nerve to actually speak with him...privately.”
Kitrina shivered though she wasn’t cold. She didn’t know what to say to Maycee. She’d only ever seen Cerra on a couple of occasions and both times the young girl had been covered from head to toe with what had looked like a burlap bag with holes cut out for her eyes, mouth, and arms. Was she tuskless? Was she hideous? Was she even green? Who knew and who cared?
But the few glimpses she had gotten of Cerra’s tormented brown eyes had told Kitrina that, even if she wasn’t hiding some kind of deformity under that sack cloth, she was certainly hiding something. Something she wanted kept private.
To Maycee, she simply replied, “I just wouldn’t mention his sister at all if I were you.”
Zander stood and beckoned to Kitrina. She was happy for the reprieve. Not that she hadn’t been glad for the female company, but the day had been long and s
he was more than ready for a different form of communication. One that didn’t require so many words.
****
Marquart Maycee Strumgrund, once immortal troll commander and now irritatingly as capable as anyone else of dying given the right circumstances, opened the door to Asla’s private suite as if it were her own and made a beeline for the bed chamber. If she still didn’t need the stupid female so badly in order to carry out her mission, she’d slip a knife between Asla’s ribs, gut her from side to side, and rip out her stupid heart.
She couldn’t do that though. The sweet ecstasy she always experienced after committing a particularly vicious murder would simply have to wait. Right now, she still needed the female barbarian’s assistance.
That thought irritated Marquart more than any other she’d had for weeks. For more than nine hundred years, she hadn’t needed anyone for anything and now she was dependent upon the talents of a blonde barbarian bimbo? Life wasn’t fair.
Not bothering to knock, she flung the door wide open and stepped inside. There upon the big four-poster bed lay the little chit, magnificently naked with her rose-hued skin glowing in the soft light of the three moons of Albrath. And she wasn’t alone. Nestled snugly between Asla’s thighs and sucking noisily on her glistening clit was her dark elf chambermaid. Her very sexy, female, dark elf chamber maid.
The sight of all that indigo blue skin mixed so enticingly with Asla’s rose petal pink perfection had Marquart throbbing as if it were her own cunt the dark elf was munching on and not the barbarian’s.
This would never do. Especially not after the mess Asla had made of the hand-to-hand-combat class earlier in the day.
“Is this really what I’m getting for all the hard-earned platt I paid yout daddy, the baron? Yout getting a cunt licking while I get…nothing?”
Asla jumped so quickly the dark elf, who had been servicing her, completely lost her balance and ended up ass first on the stone floor. But Asla didn’t even look in the maid’s direction as she grabbed a sheet from the bed and covered herself. “Wha…what are you doing here? These are my private chambers. You can’t just barge in whenever you wish.”
Marquart chuckled as she made her way to the big bed, poofed up a couple of pillows, climbed up, and settled in. “I thought perhaps now would be a good time to discuss strategy.” She glanced at the dark elf chambermaid who stood, rubbing her ass cheeks and glaring. “That is, unless yout truly are too busy. If that’s the case, I’ll simply take my influence elsewhere. Perhaps Daddy really won’t mind so much after all if Zander Hammerstrike ends up belonging to the little human.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Asla insisted. “Father is counting on me…I mean us, and I’m never too busy for you. You know that. You simply…surprised me.”
Marquart smiled. “I still have no idea as to what yout or yout father see in the barbarian prince, and why on Albrath yout would even want him after he threw yout over the way he did. I think the man is odious. He doesn’t even have a decent pair of tusks.”
Asla looked as if she were about to cry…almost. “You know exactly why I must have him. Father wants me to be a queen, needs me to be a queen, and…and…I’ll do whatever is necessary to please him. Father…disappointed, isn’t a pleasant sight.”
Marquart scoffed. “Well, if this morning was any example of yout idea of doing whatever’s necessary, then I’d hate to be around yout when yout intentionally screw up. Bating Kitrina Dragonheart? Starting a fight? Drawing attention to youtself? Really, Asla? What part of any of that disaster did yout father or I request yout do?”
The barbarian chit had the audacity to glare.
Marquart took two deep breaths and forced her hands to remain flush against her sides instead of lashing out and squeezing the life-giving air from Asla’s throat. “Play nice, that’s what I said. Make friends, especially with Kitrina’s bodyguards, those two half-witted halflings. I need them at ease. I need them to let their guards down. I need an opportunity to get close enough to inspect that stone Kitrina is known to wear constantly around her scrawny little human neck.”
She took another really deep breath and clinched her fists. “But did I get that opportunity? VoT no, I didn’t. What I got was picked up and shook like a rag doll by an overgrown halfling. Yout will do better tomorrow or else.”
Asla looked about to respond, but Marquart lifted a hand. “No comments, no excuses. Either yout do as I say, or I will tell Daddy how uncooperative yout’ve been and find someone else who will do my bidding. Now, leave me.”
“La…leave?” Asla stuttered. “But…but…but this is my chamber, my room.”
Marquart smiled as she patted the bed. “Not anymore, it isn’t. I like this bed. It’s comfy. So I’ve decided we’ll be roomies for the duration. What better way to keep my eye on yout. Yout can have use of the spare bedchamber down the hall.”
Asla nodded and motioned to her chambermaid.
“Leave the dark elf,” Marquart snarled. “My cunt could use a good licking tonight. It’s been a while. That is, unless yout rather be the one doing the honors.”
Asla left alone.
****
“What are you doing, Kit?”
Kitrina smiled at the gloriously naked Zander Hammerstrike as she cinched the knot about his wrist tighter and attached the other end of the silk cord securely to the solid wood post on the left side of the bed. “What does it look like I’m doing, barbarian. I’m tying you down, and then I’m going to have my way with you. Most assuredly more than once. Probably all night long.”
He shook his head. “Umm, I don’t mind you taking the initiative and doing all the work, but as far as the tying me, I don’t think so, my lady. How am I to do my job and protect you if I’m bound?”
She winked at him as she attached his other wrist to the opposite post. “We both know Talon’s right outside the door, on guard, just as he has been every single night since we first arrived. So, that means all you have to do is relax and leave the rest to me. The ropes are simply a…gentle reminder of who’s in control, and who isn’t.”
He laughed. “You do know, it’ll take a lot more than a couple of ropes and a tiny female to control me, don’t you?”
She didn’t answer him right away, and she didn’t even look up as she made quick work of securing both of his ankles just like she’d done his wrists. There was no way to explain why she wanted—no, needed—to be in control tonight and how she needed to feel something, anything, other than the coldness that had settled deep into her soul the moment the dagger left her hand earlier in the day. She needed his complete submission. She needed to prove to herself that he was safe with her and always would be, and she needed to prove that, though she’d taken a life, she was still very much alive and intended to stay that way.
Zander tugged at his bindings, then gulped. “Umm, Kitrina, these ropes are getting kind of tight.”
She did look up at him then. “Relax and don’t struggle, you’ll be fine.” Licking her lips, she smiled. “Special rogue knots, taught to me by our very own Uncle Leeky himself. I’d tell you how they work, but then I’d have to kill you.” She chuckled. “And the last thing I want is you dead. Trust me, Zander I don’t like my meat…cold. On the contrary, I like it sizzling hot and dripping with juices.”
Though he didn’t say another word, Zander Hammerstrike’s eyes widened, and he smiled.
She slowly slipped her tunic up and off, tossing it to the floor as she gloried in the site of his nostrils flaring and his breath quickening. His cock thickened before her eyes and rose to attention, its head purple and angry, the veins traveling along its length pulsing with life. Her pussy thrummed with excitement and anticipation.
She thought about blowing out the candles and plunging the room into total darkness. Not only would she be depriving Zander of his ability to move, but also to see. Then his other senses would have to take over. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She wanted to show and tell him with her body what she couldn’t say in
words, what they’d both agreed to not discuss but was there between them just the same, and she wanted him to watch every single moment of it.
“If I do anything you feel uncomfortable with, just say Leeky and I’ll stop.” She leaned in close and whispered. “It’ll be our safe word.”
He chuckled. “Leeky, why on Albrath would you choose him of all people?”
Never breaking eye contact, Kitrina slowly crawled her way up Zander’s body and straddled his chest. She lightly kissed his lips, nuzzled his chin, and then nipped at his neck. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Uncle Leeky to death, you know I do. But can you think of anything else in all of Albrath that could cool one’s ardor faster than the thought of Leeky Shortz?”
Zander didn’t argue the point.
Instead, he gasped as she took his left nipple between her teeth and lips. First, she sucked and then she bit down, hard. Wet heat mixed perfectly with a combination of pleasure and pain. His balls clenched and unclenched as his rod hardened even further in response. His ass lifted from the coolness of the sheets, and his cock rose, seeking, but finding no relief.
She had the audacity to giggle, and Zander groaned. “Minx, I can only take so much teasing. Be a good lass. Slip that sweet pussy of yours down my cock and ride me.”
Her response was to bite him once more, this time, harder, but on the soft skin of his neck just below his right ear. A bite that had tendrils of excitement skittering down his spine, through his ass, and straight out the head of his cock. It would no doubt leave a visible mark on him in the morning…her mark.
The thought made him pause. What would he give if life really were that simple? How easy would it be to just lie back and allow Kitrina to place her unique mark upon him, to claim him as her own, to simply forget about who he was and who he was destined to become? He couldn’t though. A love bite was one thing, but there had to be no question of anything else between them.
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