Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 3)

by Kelly St Clare

  In response, the vampire tapped my ear gently, his eyes sliding to the left.

  Oh, right.

  “Time is always slipping away. If the opportunity is now, who am I to fight my instincts?” Kyros trailed kisses between my pushed-up breasts, pulling up my thin T-shirt to continue down.

  I clamped my thighs together.

  He undid the front of my jeans, dragging down the zipper.

  My insides clenched and I clutched for his shoulder as everything disappeared; sound and smell and sight, gone.

  “Can I touch you, Basilia?” He sounded almost furious.

  He wasn’t.

  We were as desperate as each other.

  I needed him to touch me. Just another fucking line blurred that I couldn’t bring myself to care about.

  Looping an arm around my waist, Kyros held me upright, hovering his mouth just over mine. “Tell me.”

  In answer, I grabbed his hand and slid it down my stomach and beneath my panties. “It won’t take long.”

  Like, one touch. Seriously.

  His eyes flared and his fingers unfurled under my panties, making me jerk.

  I slapped my hands back on the wall. “Please hurry.”

  Kyros hummed, watching me as he supported my weight entirely. “No.”

  One thick finger entered me, pressing in with agonising slowness. I cried low as my body tightened from my toes to my fingertips, my insides drawing in to the tip of his finger.

  “Fuck,” Kyros whispered, his rapt focus on my flushed face.

  His thumb circled my clit once. And the tightening catapulted to the peak with unfathomable speed.

  Twice.

  White obliterated my senses as Kyros’s hand moved rapidly.

  Kyros’s thumb was circling.

  His finger moving. So fast.

  I couldn’t make sense of anything but the weightless bliss being wrung from my body.

  His forehead was against my shoulder as he milked my orgasm for all it was worth.

  Pleasure turned to pain as he continued.

  His name lodged in my throat and I wiggled to dislodge his thumb from my sensitive flesh. It was so much. “Ky—”

  He growled, unrelenting. The pain morphed to a slow heat that built, spreading through me again.

  My shocked gaze flew to the ceiling. I was…? The pleasure jumped up and up again, bowling through my shaking frame.

  Oh my god, I was.

  This time I heard the scream that tore from my lips as my body tried to implode around his hand. He didn’t let me collapse and curl into a ball, keeping up a steady pressure until the hazy grips of my second orgasm left me.

  After one last pulse, he slid his hand free.

  “I need to set you down.” His voice was strained, and I shivered. Blurring me to the futon in the middle of the wardrobe, Kyros raced from the room.

  Pure possessiveness rolled through him. His mind shook with the need to claim me again.

  And I was in no position to help matters.

  Sprawled on the futon, I reached blindly to do up my jeans. Fuck me. I couldn’t believe what just happened. Twice. Really?

  I wanted to stretch like a cat in front of the fire. I wanted to return the favour. I wanted nine days of mind-boggling sex from back-to-back thralls.

  The shower turned on, and I flashed a smile.

  What’s the bet it was cold?

  6

  Almost weirder than anything that had happened during Kyros’s sleepover was driving to work with him. Earlier than my shift demanded I needed to go.

  He’d woken, delivered multiple orgasms, and left. I spent all day with him between my appointments. If he kept this up, I’d have to schedule Churchill meetings on Sundulus roll days.

  Then there was my constant fear Mrs Gaughton would want to introduce herself and tell him about how she’d come to move in. Kyros thought of Bluff City residents as addresses; there was no way he’d recognise her, but still. His curiosity about my life may lead him to question her.

  “I’ll drop you at the tower,” Kyros said as I waved goodbye to Fred.

  Yep, my butler knew Kyros was a vampire and his face gave away nothing.

  And yep, pretty sure the whole house heard what went down this morning, including Fred.

  Damn. “Drop me there? You’re going somewhere else?”

  He hesitated.

  I narrowed my gaze. “Tell me.”

  Kyros tilted his head. “You’ll find out anyway.”

  That was his only incentive to tell the truth?

  “After the Tonyi triplets took you into Fyrlia territory, the clans made a deal to avoid involving an impartial clan.”

  I knew that much. “What was the deal?”

  “Part of the deal is that I spend two and a half hours with King Mikael every Friday night from 10:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.”

  Wow.

  For starters, that would mess up Kyros’s ability to lead his team for that day’s roll. More importantly. “This has been going on for a few weeks?”

  Kyros nodded, directing the car through Black.

  There was no way he was okay with this. “I’m willing to bet that Mikael spends the entire time filling your head with twisted shit about you being his son.”

  Resignation.

  I gritted my teeth. “That’s so messed up. Why would your father agree to that?” I just couldn’t understand what made Julius tick. He loved his children. Humiliated his son. He’d displayed the occasional good quality but was an all-round cruel fucker.

  “I made the offer,” Kyros said.

  What?

  “Why would you ever do that?”

  Reluctance filled him.

  “You don’t doubt who your real parents are, do you?” I pressed.

  He pursed his lips. “No. Not really. But you’ll get angry.”

  “And angrier if you don’t spit it out.”

  We pulled to a stop at a red light. “If I hadn’t, the impartial party would have interrogated Tommy. If what I suspect about how much your friend knows about my kind is correct, she’d now be dead. At the best, she’d currently be compelled. I didn’t tell you because you don’t like me interfering in her life.”

  I nearly choked on the irony of that. Interference didn’t include him saving her life.

  “How did you know?” I asked him softly.

  “You’re happier when she’s in your life. You were lonely and very suddenly happy. I then discovered she’d re-entered your life. Friendships like the one you share don’t tolerate lies. Therefore, you’d figured out some way around my fucking excellent compulsion.”

  Eek.

  I couldn’t take the credit for that. Angelica gave me Tommy back. My hands twisted on my lap.

  “Don’t ask what you’re about to ask,” he said quietly. “I told you I wouldn’t harm your friend and I meant it.”

  My exhale shook, and I felt his frustration swell at my mistrust.

  It was Tommy though.

  Kyros slid me a look. “Will you tell me how you were able to get around the compulsion?”

  “Hmm, what?”

  The vampire rolled his eyes. “I’ll figure it out.”

  The light turned green and he guided the car—an identical vehicle to the one I’d driven over the cliff from what I could tell—through Blue.

  “You told Tommy the truth about Theodore and she didn’t take it well,” he murmured as the tidy apartments and community gardens whizzed by. “I felt your pain yesterday morning. She left?”

  “She loved him and couldn’t accept he was dead, that I did it, or that he was Vissimo. Any of it. She won’t be back.”

  I hadn’t dared to let myself feel anything but numbness about that yet.

  “She’ll return.”

  “No,” I replied, hugging myself. “Last time, there was a spark of friendship remaining. I watched it die yesterday. I know her. That was it for good. I sent ten Vissimo with her, but that’s the extent of things.”

 
Kyros was silent for a long time. “Then she has lost a great treasure.”

  “Pretty sure it’s the other way around,” I said in a hollow voice.

  He didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, dropping me in the garage and waiting until I was in the elevator to leave again. What a fucking joke. I wished I could wrap my hands around King Mikael’s neck. Kyros wanted to pretend this didn’t affect him, fine. I knew otherwise.

  The current dissipated to bearable levels as the lift shot up. Thank Zeus. A day in his company had me aching in the worst possible way. I took a steadying breath, recalling the way I came undone in my wardrobe.

  There was another hour until the dice were rolled. I’d spend the time catching up on the last few weeks with Conrad, Ilion, and Danielle—three of Kyros’s seconds. They’d be eating their lunch on Level 50.

  “Miss Le Spyre.” Ilion greeted me when I entered the cafeteria. He was my favourite of the seconds—reminded me of Fred with his watchful ways.

  I shrugged out of my jacket and swung it over the back of the chair. I tended to sit at the front of the room closest to the elevators to avoid Vissimo overload, but the seconds sat right in the middle of the hundreds of round tables and being around bulk vampires bothered me less and less.

  “Hey, Ilion. Thanks for meeting with me. Probably best I catch up before tonight.”

  “Danielle and Conrad will be along presently,” he replied. “Can I extend my sincerest relief that you are recovered from your ordeal?”

  He made it sound like I’d bounced back from a sprained ankle. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” I opened a notepad. “Okay, what properties has Fyrlia acquired in the last week?”

  Ilion tapped on his tablet. “It isn’t good.”

  My face fell. “How bad are we talking?”

  He glanced around the level and lifted his tablet, reciting the list. The list went on and on. In comparison, Sundulus’s acquisitions were pitiful. He moved through changes in each of the industries. Though the results weren’t as drastic as in the realty sector, Fyrlia had increased across the board.

  “The thing is their purchase prices,” he muttered. “They’re throwing money at these properties. Everywhere, really.”

  I knew why. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It does if they feel they’re about to win,” he said quietly. “Our efforts to stall the Ringly development are proving ineffective. If our forecasters are right, we have a matter of weeks to turn this around.”

  Shock found me. Then anger. Kyros had grossly underplayed how dire things were. He’d slipped in a worst-case scenario comment off the cuff and then used the listening Indebted as an excuse.

  I mean, of course I’d known Fyrlia would swing the game as soon as possible with the information I’d imparted. “So what’s the game plan?”

  Ilion sighed. “Kyros is investigating the legitimacy of the council documents surrounding approval of Mr Ringly’s DA. We already ran through the documents, but the royal family is certain something there is amiss. Other than that, Prince Rory has approved a doubled budget across the board.”

  Ilion and the other seconds had no idea about the bluff. I wasn’t sure if I should be bothered that Kyros and I had the same thought to investigate the DA.

  Danielle and Conrad joined us, and we settled into a more in-depth discussion of how the game board was stacked. By the time the Vissimo around me filtered upstairs in preparation of the roll, I was exhausted and my real shift hadn’t begun.

  “Thank you,” I told them wearily. “That helps a lot.”

  Conrad rested a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, Miss Le Spyre.”

  Considering he wasn’t a big fan of mine, I appreciated the reassurance.

  We entered the lift, a group of minions scrambling out when Ilion growled.

  Just as the doors began to close, Angelica slipped in.

  She smiled at me.

  Fuck. “Whatever shit news you’re delivering, get it over with,” I told her flatly.

  Her smile widened, and she held out the dark-green envelope in her hand. There was a gold wax seal on it.

  FA.

  Fuck All. Or Francesca Atagio.

  Maybe both.

  “Do I want to open this?” I muttered.

  “Probably not.”

  Snorting, I slipped my finger under the seal and pried it apart, sliding out the thick paper.

  It contained the details of the fashion show. Next Sunday, nine days away.

  Ugh.

  Danielle took the invitation when I held it out.

  “Kyros’s siblings are going to kill me one day,” I told them.

  “If they didn’t accept you, they wouldn’t bother,” Danielle replied, her lips twitching.

  Francesca would dress me in the ugliest creation in existence. The papers would have a field day that Basilia Le Spyre was dressed in rags.

  Had to respect her effort though.

  “Francesca’s may be the best one,” I admitted.

  “I liked Lionel’s,” Conrad said. “Even if Kyros painted the billboards over two hours later.”

  Yeah. In terms of enjoyment, Lionel’s was my favourite. Or Lalitta’s.

  “Safina still hasn’t shown her hand,” Ilion said. “She will deliver.”

  I took the fashion show invitation back, tucking it in my purse. “Why do I get the feeling you guys are enjoying this?”

  Angelica patted my hand. “Because we are.”

  By the time we got to the glass tube, the rolling chamber where the kings and their queens gathered each night was already up.

  The monarchs glided into the room, but they weren’t alone.

  I inhaled as Kyros strode into the room in the wake of King Mikael.

  Angelica slid a look at me. “You didn’t know.”

  “I did.” That downplaying bastard. “Seeing it is just a shock.”

  The monarchs faced each other and Kyros bowed low to his father and mother. King Mikael’s face didn’t change, but he had to be totally pissed.

  I wasn’t sure that I’d felt protective over Kyros before, at least not to this degree, but I felt capable of violence on his behalf in that moment.

  A foreign soothing wound around me, and I narrowed my eyes as Kyros tried to calm me down from the ringside of Fyrlia’s roll.

  Whipping out my phone, I typed:

  Great seats. How much did they set you back?

  Send.

  The kings were facing each other when Kyros’s phone buzzed. His expression didn’t change, but I felt his jolt of surprise.

  Shit. Why wasn’t his phone on silent!

  All four of the monarchs paused to look at him.

  Meeting their gazes, he slid the phone free.

  Kyros read the message, and a wide grin spread across his face. His gratitude swept through me, and then my phone chimed.

  Like we’d orchestrated it, the Vissimo on Level 66 pivoted my way.

  “What are you doing?” Angelica asked.

  “Fucking with Mikael. He’s a dick.”

  A few gasps rang out.

  Was that a no-no? My bad.

  I read Kyros’s message.

  Freebie. Couldn’t turn it down

  King Mikael was picking up the dice now.

  Pursing my lips, I readied my text.

  The fifth exchange is a yes from me.

  As Mikael crouched forward in preparation to fling his arms wide, I sent the text.

  The buzz made him twitch as the dice left his fingertips.

  I laughed, and Angelica looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

  Pretty sure I lost that about the time I drove a car off a cliff to prove a point.

  The kings zoomed back to their seats as Kyros read my message. He lifted his head, and holy shit, I swore he looked straight at me through the camera.

  “What did you just say?” Conrad whispered.

  My cheeks warmed. “Just discussing the weather.”

  He snorted.
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  The dice catapulted over the chamber, but as they slowed, everyone quieted. We couldn’t afford Fyrlia to land on Agriculture again. It was the only industry where neither clan had a large foothold yet. With Mr Ringly’s ongoing development, if Fyrlia gained traction there first, we were really screwed.

  The dice by Queen Titania’s foot was a five.

  The other was a four.

  A nine. Which put them firmly on Agriculture.

  “Fucker.” I booted the glass tube.

  Ilion gripped my arm as excited murmurs erupted at my back. “No, one of the dice is touching Queen Bethany’s shoe.”

  Cool. I hoped they could sell it on eBay for a good price.

  “If either dice touches someone, they have to roll again,” Danielle said.

  Oh. “That’s great!”

  Inwardly, Kyros was roaring with laughter though not a speck of it showed physically.

  “Distraction from the same side isn’t considered interference,” Conrad said, gripping my shoulder tight.

  Peering back to the live streaming, I studied King Mikael. The only sign of his fury was the white skin where his lips pressed together.

  The kings stepped forward again. I had no idea how to gauge Julius’s reaction, but I felt he’d be all for the humiliation of his enemy.

  Kyros was typing back.

  What has changed in the last two hours?

  I waited until after Mikael’s roll to respond this time. He’d be braced for the distraction and messing with him twice felt like tempting fate.

  Hmm, what had changed in the last two hours? I’d learned Kyros sacrificed his time and happiness so my friend kept her freedom and life.

  But really?

  Sighing, I messaged back.

  Nothing

  Not only did I need the fifth exchange with Kyros. I fucking wanted it. Bad.

  Desperately.

  He was the whole damned tower, and I was so far gone that denial was futile.

  Every speck of hope and anticipation I felt turned to fear and guilt… and resolve. Backing down wasn’t an option. It hadn’t been since I entered Kyros Sky, and so really, nothing had changed except what I was willing to admit to myself.