Mercer was here. So was the boy. And her daughter had finally shown. All three were acting just as she’d known they would. There hadn’t even been any need to bespell them to do her bidding.
There was a common trait amongst the pests that made them pathetically predictable, be they Veilers or mortals. Nature was an intrinsic state of being. Good, evil, or maybe even living within shades of gray, all species were, at their core, the very same. There was nothing new under the sun. Even when they thought they were special or different, they never really were. After lifetimes of studying her prey, War understood that the quickest way to get the chess pieces to do as she wanted was to make them believe the choice had been theirs all along.
It never was, of course. The truth was that they were mere puppets, and she was their master, but she never let them know that.
Unless, of course, she already owned their souls. Clarence had been only too happy to sign his over when she’d offered him his throne and power back in exchange for one teeny, tiny, insignificant request.
His undying and unswerving fealty in all things.
She would honor their deal. She was a woman of principle, after all. Sadly, the pathetic little puppets never understood they’d struck a devil’s bargain. But hey, they always got exactly what they bargained for.
“What is the matter now?” he grumbled.
Clarence was a cheeky fellow, treating her as though it was he, and not she, who held the power in their partnership. It pleased her to let him continue to believe so. So long as he thought himself above her, he would fail to treat her with the proper and fearful respect she deserved. It would make his end all the sweeter.
When the time came, of course.
“I fear your son believes he can play us for fools. You said we could trust him.”
Clarence snorted. “Mercer’s loyal. Do not doubt it.”
She raised a brow. “And yet, by your own admission, he despises you now.”
“Yes, he does. But he would do anything to keep his filthy parasite safe, not to mention... the child.”
His nostrils flared, and she heard the pained quiver in his words that he tried so damn hard to keep hidden from her. But she knew all his thoughts and secrets, everything hidden and dark.
Clarence was a bastard and cared nothing for anyone else, save one. That boy. The child was an effective tool, at least for now. But he would need to be dealt with soon. Maybe that would be the way she showed Clarence who was really in charge here. But no need to be hasty yet.
“Mercer cavorts with my enemy.”
Clarence narrowed dark eyes. “I do not think so.”
She smirked. “You would call me a liar? I should slit your throat for that insult.”
He snorted, looking far too at ease as he plopped back onto his ass on the bed and sighed heavily.
“I think if you’d really caught him, you’d have killed him already.”
War leaned against the bed post with Nox sheathed in the scabbard on her back. It’s gleam was a quicksilver reflection in Clarence’s eyes.
“What I think you’re really saying is that you’re worried my son’s honor could become corrupted by that monster and throw off all our plans. But”—he reached for her, taking her hand in his and lacing their fingers together—“we already know the path he would have to take, and there is no way in hell he’ll do that.”
She moaned as his thumb stroked the pulse point of her wrist. This male was so fragile, so easy to break, but he did have a glorious cock.
His pupils flared as he scented her sudden need.
Clarence yanked her to him and, in one swift move, rolled her beneath him. She willed their clothes gone, but Nox rested beside her. Her steel companion vibrated with tremors of vile disgust and need.
They hated the touch of others, and yet they always craved it, too, wanting more, even as they knew that, eventually, they would kill the very thing that had brought them to such great heights of pleasure. Nothing that fucked them could be allowed to walk the Earth for long, for War was a jealous lover and would never, ever share what was hers.
“His repulsive love of her,” Clarence whispered while dragging fang-tipped kisses along the hollow of her throat, “will be his undoing. I vow it to the darkness that binds.”
She laughed, raking her claws down his back and breaking skin, reveling in the feel of warm blood coating her fingertips.
“You are a surprising man, so... very wicked. Are you so sure you can toss your son to the wolves like that? It won’t bother you at all to see my blade bathe in his blood?”
Clarence shoved his palm against War’s neck, squeezing so hard that he pinched off her airway as he shoved his cock deep into her dripping-wet sheath. He fucked her until she sang out in exultation. Nox screamed along with her.
Soon, very soon, it would all come to an end. But for now, the wet slap of flesh on heated flesh was all War needed.
When he drew out her orgasm, and she’d wrung every last bit of pleasure from his body that she could, she tossed him off her. His cock was still long, hard, and erect, dripping with pre-ejaculate. His look was savage, feral, like the dog he was.
“I’m not done yet,” he snapped, reaching for her with clawed fingers.
She sneered as she called her gown of black shadow to swathe her delectable figure once again. “You know how to handle that, I’m sure.”
He growled low. “I will grab a whore.”
Hissing, she twirled on him, shoving her palm against his windpipe and slamming him against the wall. His pupils thinned down to near nonexistence, and for just a second, she smelled the rank stench of fear sliding through his pores.
“Do it, and I will eat your balls.” She licked her lips. “What’s mine is mine.”
Then she flung him away, tossing him to the floor in a wild tangle of sprawled limbs. He heaved for breath, long hair covering his face like a dark curtain.
She stared at the pathetic creature. “Lucky for you, I love your cock. But don’t push me, little wolf man. It won’t end well for you.” She dusted invisible lint off her cuffs.
He looked up from among the spill of silky salt-and-pepper hair. His jaw was clenched tight, his cock now beginning to go limp.
He breathed, chest cavity swelling and caving in, looking like the statue of David come to glorious life.
Gods, she had such a weakness for good dick. It was so hard to come by these days. She rolled her eyes, knowing she could not yet show her final hand. He must remain willfully loyal to her.
Wetting her lips, she rolled them into a seductive grin and noted the transformation that came over him—the way his skin broke out in a sudden wash of goosebumps, the rise of his dick that had just been at half-mast.
Walking toward him until mere inches separated them and the heat of his body wafted over her like a warm blanket, she placed her hand upon his nude shoulder, pumping small amounts of pleasure into him.
He hissed and shuddered, his cock visibly twitching.
“You know what to do, my true heart’s love, don’t you? You will do it, right? You will bring him in? Show him I’m not such a bad person? Right, my darling?”
Clarence was breathing heavy, face beginning to contort with swelling desire.
He gasped as she pumped just a little more pleasure into him, filling his blood, his bones, even his flesh with the sensation of being gripped by the sweetest, tightest pussy he’d ever had in his life.
“I... I will,” he grunted out, back bowing, exposing the long, gorgeous lines of sinew and flesh that made him. His hands braced behind his back, and she wet her lips, getting excited herself by the raw show of strength that was a shifter in his prime.
“What will you do, my pet?” she whispered, stroking her fingers along the column of his bruised throat.
Her sheath fluttered, imagining him wearing that bright purple bloom for the next few days. Violence. Ecstasy. They were two sides of the same coin for her. Either was enough to get her off.
/> He moaned, sensing her rising need of him.
His cock was leaking thick, milky-white cream. War didn’t bother to undress this time. She merely straddled his body and sank onto his hard steel, groaning violently as she rubbed once, twice...
“Fuck!” he roared.
But she staved off his orgasm, refusing to allow him release until she’d had her own.
She screamed and stabbed her nails into his chest, needing to both feel the pleasure and see the pain.
Lowering her head, she drank the sweet nectar of his red juices as her body greedily sucked in the milk from his cock.
“Tell me, dog!” she spat. “Tell me what you will do!”
“I... I will...” His eyes were squeezed shut, and he was weeping, shuddering spasmodically as his body desperately sought a release that would not come until she decided to allow it. “Bring Mercer in. I... I will me... meet with Decl— fucking gods!”
He roared, slamming into her over and over again, drawing even more orgasms from her. She writhed, manic and possessed by a fire of a different kind.
“You’ll kill me, War. You must end this agony. You must!”
She dove for his mouth, biting his bottom lip so hard that she tore the soft meat open. He screamed, trying to push her away from him, but she refused to let go and clamped him firmly to her with her hand at his spine.
But even as he moaned, he shoved into her harder and deeper, stretching her full and making her feel as though she might break too.
She knew exactly what Clarence liked and how he liked it. It was his little secret, and she was only too happy to oblige. She liked pain too.
“Stab me with your claws,” she hissed, “and then I will release you.”
He didn’t hesitate. He shoved his claws into the soft meat of her belly, tickling her organs and making her scream in agony and euphoria, sending her spiraling into a state of such painful bliss that she ruptured with an orgasm so powerful that she blacked out.
Then, and only then, did she release Clarence to have his own.
His howl rent the night, but no one else would hear her lover’s cries. She swallowed his tongue, clawing at his skull with the wild desperation of a woman never satiated, but always hungry, thirsting for more.
He moaned, but he could not deny her. Even if it killed him.
“I am most pleased with you, my beast. Let me show you just how very much...”
Chapter 10
Scarlett
Waking up, I wasn’t sure where I was. It took my mind a second to recognize that the dirt lair I was in was the same one I’d been dragged to the night before when I’d lost my shit.
I blinked.
“Sleeping Beauty awakes,” a deep voice whispered, and I grinned, glancing up.
James knelt beside me, his large hand stroking my cheek as he slid hair off my face.
“Did I really take a dirt nap? The irony is thick, right?” I asked with a soft groan, feeling aches and pains in places I’d never felt aches and pains in before. “Why didn’t Mercer move—”
“He tried, lass. Ye said, and I quote, ‘Move me, and I’ll end you,’ end quote.”
I snorted, scrubbing off the dirt on my mouth with the back of my hand. “I don’t believe you. I think you’re pulling my leg.”
“Aye, weel.” He took my hand and helped me to stand, dusting off my now very dirty and thoroughly ruined gown from the night before. “I didn’t expect ye would.”
I squinched my brows, peering at the stucco walls of the place, studying what I’d not been all that bothered to study earlier. “So, this is like a cage of some kind, then? Not the fanciest place I’ve ever lived, but if it’s safe, I guess I can’t ask for more.”
He snorted, still gripping my hand as he walked us down a long, narrow walkway for what felt like forever. But soon, I heard the patter of very quiet footsteps and the hushed voices of my friends and family.
I frowned. “What is this place again?”
“Think underground lair, and ye wouldn’t be that far off the mark. Verra comfy. I liken it to a den of sorts.”
“In other words, a shifter’s dream house.”
His grin was crooked, exposing the faint pinkened lines of his Glasgow grin. “Aye, something verra like.”
My heart fluttered as I realized just how much I’d missed my friend. Stopping us, I turned him to face me.
“Hey, before we go in there, wherever ‘there’ is”—I pointed ahead at the faint glow of light beyond the tunnel—“I just wanted to say that you’re a sight for sore eyes, James Black.”
His dark eyes gazed at me with happiness and a glint of something darker, fuller. Hunger.
He growled, glancing down as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I thought this would be easier.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, lass. I’ll get it under control soon, I vow it.”
I tipped his chin up, forcing him to look back at me, but he refused, keeping his eyes screwed tightly shut.
“Hey, you, look at me,” I said softly.
When he finally did, I saw the confusion and bitterness mingled with the acceptance of my situation.
I pursed my lips. His large hands wrapped around my wrists.
“I was a fool to ever believe ye’d choose me, Scar. Ye deserve the moon, lass, and I couldna give it to you. I’m a broken old man. I had no right being with you. I knew how Mercer felt, and I should never have—”
I hugged him tight, pressing our chests together so that he could feel the strong beat of my heart bump against his.
He shuddered, but wrapped me up tight in his arms, laying his head on my shoulder for several long seconds as he breathed me in.
Loving someone who could never love you back has to be its own kind of hell. I couldn’t imagine how much anguish it still caused him. It didn’t matter that Isobel hadn’t been deserving. His mate’s bond with her would make him loyal to her and only her until the bitter end. And he’d loved me too much to keep stringing me along that way. I knew that now. I knew it because I had my own mate’s bond and understood the great depths of loyalty that took hold of you when you pledged yourself eternally to another.
I was lucky in my chosen mate. James hadn’t been.
I kissed his cheek. “We good now? Can we be friends without any of the weird stuff between us?”
He leaned back just enough to look me square in the eyes. His grin was soft, and I felt we were healed, that now we could go on the way we should have been right from the start.
“I will always be loyal to ye, my friend.”
I nodded. “Good. Then show me the rest of this place, and maybe you can tell me where Mercer’s gotten off to. I can’t smell him anywhere.”
Taking my arm into the crook of his own, he walked us toward the light and shook his head. “He’s at the castle with the rest of the champions.”
I pursed my lips. “So soon? I hoped I’d get him for at least an hour or two before he fought.”
“No.” He patted my fingers. “These games are more than mere duels. They’re a time for clansmen to catch up, make deals... all the things they canna do on a day-to-day basis. Not to mention all the pomp and ceremony that comes with being in the presence of nobility.”
“So, in other words, pretentious and fussy. Got it.” I grinned, and he grinned back.
“Aye, something like that.”
“When are we going to the castle to watch?”
He grimaced. “Well, about that. Ye aren’t going to see him battle. Not with that mark on yer neck, lass. Last night proved that it’s far too dangerous for—”
I yanked him toward me and glowered. “He’s my husband. I have to support him. I have to—”
“Scar, listen to me.” He gripped my shoulder and gave me a gentle shake. “You were mad with the lust last night, or ye’d have seen it, but ye came this close to starting another Great War. Everyone was on their best behavior last night cuz the Campbell told ‘em to be. Even so, they didna want ye there. None of ‘em. And
you’ve used your nine lives, lass. What you did last night... they’re jumpy. Cagey. It’s not safe for ye there, at least not tonight.
Though I recognized that his words were probably right, I hated the thought of being caged in this underground tunnel. It felt like a prison, like a grave. It made my skin itchy. I bit my bottom lip.
He jerked his head in the direction of the light and tugged me into motion again.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
I scowled. “And what exactly am I thinking, if you’re such an expert?”
He grinned a cocky grin but didn’t say anything else.
Then we stepped through the tunnel, and the feelings of desperation completely faded away as I took in the homey and very roomy “den.”
It was huge, maybe half the size of the great hall from last night, but huge for a private living space.
Blue and Gareth, who were sharing a couch, looked up at me, and I smiled at them. Steven was in the far corner, staring at a television screen while holding a gaming remote. His small tongue poked out of his mouth as he yelped and grunted, glaring at an image of a Mustang, driving like a madman over choppy hills and roads.
I raised my brow. The décor was rustic, but the lights cast a soft reddish-pink glow from the mineral deposits in the red dirt walls. There was a kitchen table, a small fridge, a two-burner stove, a sink, and cabinets. There was also the couch that Blue and his “something” shared, a recliner, some scattered rugs, and walls and walls of shelves and books.
“What the hell kind of place is this, exactly?”
I was asking James, but Gareth stood and dipped his head in greeting to me as he answered. “This is the shifter version of a panic room for visiting nobles and dignitaries. Very few of the clans know about the intricate tunnel system beneath the castle. The Campbell was gracious enough to gift us the full use of one during our stay here.”
I wrinkled my nose, running my hand over the thick, colored cotton runner on the six-chair table.
“How nice of him,” I said, but my reticence was evident.
Gareth pursed his lips. “Make no mistake, vampire—”
Blue hissed.
And Gareth nodded. “Forgive me, Scarlett. Old habits. But it would be to your detriment to ever believe the Campbell a kind man. He is many things, but kind isn’t one of them.”
The Vampire Went Down to Georgia Page 14
