by Sarah Hawke
I frowned, amazed that he had spotted me. “Did you find another lead or not?”
He rolled over and looked into the shadows where I was hiding. “I did. It’s something of a long-shot, but I figure it’s better than nothing at this point.”
Taking a deep breath, I hopped down from my perch and approached the side of his bed. He looked me up and down, his eyes flicking between my cleavage and navel.
“Nice armor,” he muttered. “Though I guess if I could survive a shot to the gut, I probably wouldn’t be shy about showing off my belly, either.”
I smiled despite myself. “You’d prefer the red dress?”
“Let’s just say it was a bit less threatening. What I really miss are the glowing tats. Speaking of…” He leaned up and tossed off his covers. “If you’re this early, you probably want some breakfast. I’d be happy to help you again.”
“I bet you would,” I said, forcing myself to stay focused. Getting this close to him was a mistake; I could already feel the Aetheric energy pumping through him, and it was making me ravenous. “You said you had a lead. Let’s hear it.”
Jorem snorted. “What, no foreplay this time?”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” I insisted. “Sobren could be planning to relocate again for all we know. If you still want your ticket to Highwind, you better make this good.”
“Right,” he muttered, still frowning in confusion at my change in mood. He had probably expected me to barge in here and suck him off again.
Gee, why would he possibly assume that?
“I told you before how much Sobren likes elves, especially purebloods,” Jorem went on. “Well, there’s an elven woman who runs a vineyard north of town. Her name is Karawyn. I know for a fact he visits her every few weeks.”
“Interesting,” I said. “But do you really think he’d share the location of Brotherhood safe houses with one of his mistresses?”
“In her case, yes. They’re not just lovers—they’re in business together. I wouldn’t call her vineyard a front, exactly, but the Brotherhood uses her distributors to smuggle lotus into the city sometime. She may not know all of his secrets, but I guarantee she’ll know something worthwhile.”
I nodded idly. “Have you met her?”
“Not in person, no. Though after our little incident in the club, that’s probably for the best. She won’t suspect me.”
“If she’s in business with the Brotherhood, she’ll have protection,” I said.
“Oh, so now you’re worried about Sobren’s thugs?” Jorem sneered. “Where was all this caution when we were breaking into his personal underground fortress?”
I sighed. “This is different.”
“Yeah, we won’t be completely surrounded. She’ll only have one or two goons watching over her.” He folded his arms over his chest. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing. I just don’t want to waste this opportunity. We might not get another.”
His eyes narrowed. “I realize I’ve only known you for a whopping two days, but I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character. Especially with women who’ve worn my cum on their face.”
I glared daggers at him, and I almost drew my crossbow. But he just snorted again and shook his head.
“You happily walked into Sobren’s den wearing nothing but a skirt and heels, and you were still acting like you were completely invincible,” Jorem went on. “Now you’re worried about a few goons on a farm in the middle of nowhere?”
“You don’t—”
“You’re scared,” he interrupted. “I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but here we are.” He paused and shook his head. “Let me guess: your mistress learned about our little deal, and she wasn’t happy about it.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied far too quickly. I must have been even more flustered than I thought. “If the Inquisitrix knew I was working with a sorcerer, she never would have let me leave the Castarium. And you would be surrounded by a whole squad of my sisters right now.”
Jorem grunted and flopped back on his pillow. “So instead you’re just going to do what I assumed you’d do all along: you’ll use me to get to Sobren, then you’ll shoot me in the back of the head and leave me in a ditch somewhere. Is that about right?”
I had always been good at controlling my expression and body language, but apparently he was even better at reading them. It wasn’t just annoying—it was infuriating.
“I told you we had a deal,” I said. “Nothing has changed other than the fact I’m running out of patience. Get dressed and we’ll head out to meet this elf of yours.”
His dark eyes remained locked on mine for what felt like a small eternity before he finally leaned up and shrugged. “Sure, sweetheart, whatever. It’s not like I have a lot of choice here.”
“That’s right, you don’t. Now stop blabbing and get ready.”
Jorem snorted softly, but he did as he was told. I watched in silence, trying and failing to ignore the knot twisting in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t sure if I had ever been this emotionally unbalanced in my whole life.
As long as his lead pans out, everything will be fine. You’ll be right back on the Inquisitrix’s good side, and you’ll be able to help Jorem escape without anyone being the wiser.
If it didn’t pan out, of course…well, that was the part I didn’t want to think about.
5
We left the city through the north gate, and I purchased a horse for us at the stables just outside. I chose to ride behind Jorem in the saddle, figuring that he was the one who knew where he was going, but I almost immediately regretted the decision. Sitting this close to him was making me ravenous. Aetheric power swirled around his body like static electricity, and when I wrapped my hands around his waist for support I could feel the rhythmic drumming of his pulse. For once, I wished I was an actual vampire; I would have loved to sink my fangs into his neck and drink until I was sated.
Of course, what I really wanted was to fuck him again. And again.
And possibly again, if he was still conscious.
“How much farther?” I asked after Vorsalos had finally vanished beyond the horizon. My sense of geography was terrible despite the fact I’d lived here all my life. I was a city girl through and through.
“A few miles,” Jorem said. “Something wrong?”
“No,” I lied, biting down on my lip. I had brought a few charged vatari crystals with me, but I wanted to save them for when I really needed a burst of energy.
“There’s not much else out here in the wetlands; the nearest village is probably ten miles east.” He grunted. “If you need to stop, we could—”
“Just keep riding,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
I wasn’t. Five minutes later I was salivating in anticipation, and twenty minutes later I was borderline delirious. My hunger had never flared out of control like this before, not even when I walked through the Castarium armory where we stored all the charged crystals. Jorem was a living conduit of Aetheric energy, and I couldn’t bloody take it anymore.
“Shit,” I hissed.
“What?” he asked.
“Sit up straight,” I told him, removing the leather gauntlet from my right hand. “And lean back in the saddle.”
He glanced back over his shoulder. “What are you—hey!”
With my left arm still wrapped tightly around his waist, my right plunged into his trousers in search of his cock. I could already feel the blood surging through him in anticipation.
“Just relax,” I said into his ear. “Keep your hands on the reigns and stay still.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Just relax,” I repeated, sliding my left hand up his stomach to hold him in place. “Keep your eyes on the road.”
I freed his stem and curled my fingers around the thick shaft. He was already rock hard, just like I had expected, and I closed my eyes and nibbled at his earlobe as I began stroking him. My quim was burn
ing again, and I was seriously tempted to swing my legs around and straddle him. I absolutely would have if I had still been wearing a dress, but for now this would have to suffice.
“Fuck,” he gasped breathlessly. “We could just stop riding for a minute, you know.”
“I don’t want to waste any time.”
I began pumping him in earnest, and he finally reclined back against me like I’d wanted all along. Our horse continued walking at a brisk pace, blissfully unaware, and I reflexively matched my rhythm to its gait.
“Remember when I said you were the craziest bitch I’d ever met?” Jorem panted. “You’re just proving me right.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.” I nibbled harder at his ear and dug my fingernails into his chest. “Now be a good boy and give me what I want.”
“Escar’s…something ,” Jorem blurted out. “Here it comes!”
I quickly leaned up in the saddle and stretched around him until my lips could reach his cock. He erupted the instant I swallowed him, firing volley after volley of his molten seed straight down my throat. He grabbed onto the back my head and held me firmly in place, though it wasn’t as if I had planned on moving anytime soon. I siphoned every spark of magical energy from his hot, viscous offering, and once I finished I swallowed the entire batch in a single gulp. My body went limp from the aftershocks of another climax, and if I hadn’t locked my boots into the stirrups I probably would have fallen out of the saddle.
“Bloody hell,” Jorem gasped breathlessly.
As usual, I was barely paying attention. I could feel the magic coursing through my tattoos, and I could see the reflection of my glowing eyes on his skin. When I finally recovered, I lifted my head and returned to my perch in the saddle behind him.
“Keep riding,” I ordered, licking my lips clean and wrapping my arms back around his waist. “I want to get there as soon as possible.”
***
The vineyard was vastly larger than I had expected. It stretched for at least a mile in every direction, and we had to ascend a nearby hill to get a bird’s-eye view of the whole property. Karawyn’s luxurious house was almost directly in the center. At this time of day, we wouldn’t be able to get to her without being spotted by one of the many laborers currently working the fields, let alone the dozen or so armored guards patrolling the perimeter.
“You said she would only have one or two goons watching over her,” I griped as I glanced through a spyglass to scout the area.
“Something obviously changed,” Jorem murmured.
I lowered the spyglass and drew my crossbow. Apparently nothing was going to be easy today. “I can take them out easily enough. We can hide the bodies in the vines then move towards—”
“Let’s not go crazy,” Jorem interrupted, placing his hand on my wrist. “I realize a Senosi may find this hard to believe, but not every problem has to be solved with killing.”
My brow furrowed. “You prefer to use your magic?”
“Magic isn’t always the solution, either,” he said. “We could just, you know, go around.”
I glanced back down to the house at the center of the vineyard. “Without the cover of darkness, we’ll be spotted long before we reach the door. I don’t want to wait.”
“When we first met, you told me you were a patient girl.”
“I lied.”
He grunted softly. “All we need is a distraction. A little fire on the edge of the property and they’ll all head over to check it out.”
“Not a bad idea, but I don’t have a tinderbox.”
Jorem opened his hand, and a small ball of fire blazed to life in his palm. “I’m a walking tinderbox, sweetheart.”
“You just said that not every problem can be solved with magic.”
“I lied.”
He flashed me an impish grin before he scampered off down the hill towards a shed at the edge of the property. I snickered despite myself.
It’s bad enough that he’s attractive. Why does he have to be charming, too?
I watched and waited as he crouched down behind the shed and ignited the wood. He paused a few seconds to make sure the wind wouldn’t extinguish the blaze—or accidentally spread into the field—before he raced back up to me. I heard shouting all across the property when the thick black smoke began billowing up to the sky in earnest.
“There we go,” Jorem said, still grinning at his own cleverness. “If we take a long loop around to the house, we should be able to avoid contact.”
“You’re smarter than you look,” I said.
“You’re crazier than you look,” he countered. “Shall we get moving?”
I nodded. “Lead the way.”
His ruse worked even better than he thought. Every Brotherhood thug ran off to investigate except one, and the man was still so fixated by the smoke that I had no trouble sneaking up behind him and bashing him over the head. I dragged the body behind the house just in case any of the servants returned, then raced back to the front door and readied my crossbow.
“This is one hell of a lock,” Jorem commented, his hand glowing with magic. “I’ll need a minute to—”
I smashed the handle off its hinges and rushed inside before he could finish the sentence. A female voice yelped a few rooms over, and I dashed through the entryway and vaulted over any furniture in my way. The woman was already running by the time I caught up with her, but a quick shot into the door in front of her convinced her to freeze in place. She whirled around and threw up her hands.
“No, please!” she shrieked. “I didn’t—”
“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have missed,” I said, holding my weapon steady as the automatic reloader slid another bolt into place. “You’re going to answer a few questions for me, and if I don’t like the answers I’m going to hurt you. Do you understand?”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Jorem blurted out when he rushed into the room with his hands up. “There’s no need to do anything rash here.”
I turned and glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
“If you want gold, there’s some in the nightstand,” the elven woman blurted out. “Just take it!”
“We’re not here for gold,” Jorem said, inching forward another step. “Look, let’s just cut through all the bullshit, all right? We don’t have a lot of time, and I’ve recently established that my friend here doesn’t have a lot of patience. There’s no way out of this for you unless you cooperate. All we need is a little bit of information on the Brotherhood.”
Karawyn glanced between us, her arms visibly trembling at her sides. “Then you might as well just kill me. I’m not telling you anything.”
I fired a quarrel into the table just behind her. She hopped at least six inches in the air, and she nearly tripped over the furniture in the process.
“Who said anything about killing you?” I asked. “I’m Senosi. We always play with our prey first.”
Jorem raised a hand and shot me a glare that said back off . “You’ll have to forgive her,” he said. “As far as I can tell they don’t teach manners at the Castarium.”
“If you so much as touch me, he’ll come for you,” Karawyn spat. “The Brotherhood still runs this city!”
“We both know that’s not true,” Jorem said, his voice still amazingly calm. “You’ve run this vineyard for decades, and your elven memory is surely good enough to remember what things were like before I was even born. The Brotherhood is a shadow of its former self, and sooner or later my friend or one of her Senosi sisters will catch up with your lover and put an end to the Lecasi family for good. Would you rather keep your business or go down with a sinking ship?”
The woman’s lip quivered. I could see her resolve cracking as the seconds passed. The only question was whether or not she would break before her thugs returned.
“I’m not here for you,” I said, picking up on Jorem’s cue. “Before a few hours ago I didn’t even know you e
xisted, and neither does the Inquisitrix. If you tell us where Sobren is, I’ll make certain she remains ignorant.”
“It’s the best offer you’re going to get,” Jorem added. “Believe me, she’s a tough negotiator.”
Karawyn remained silent for another few moments before she swallowed heavily. “He’s in the mine,” she said. “I don’t know how long he’ll be staying there, but he has something planned. Something big.”
“Which mine?” I asked, lowering my weapon.
“The vatari mine in the mountains to the east of here,” the elf said. “I don’t know exactly where it is.”
I frowned. “All the crystal in those mines was extracted years ago. They’re abandoned.”
“I assume that’s why the Brotherhood moved in,” Jorem replied mildly. “Do you know how many men he has with him?”
“A lot,” Karawyn said.
Jorem scoffed. “Figures. Anything else you want to tell us?”
“He stopped by yesterday to talk, and he warned me about our slipping production. I thought he might kill me…”
“He sounds like a real charmer,” Jorem muttered, glancing back over his shoulder to me. “Satisfied?”
“She could be lying just to get us out of here,” I pointed out.
“I’m telling you the truth, I swear!” Karawyn insisted. “That’s all I know. Please…please, just get out of here!”
My Senosi training demanded that I not to trust her. Only pain reveals truth —my instructors at the Castarium had hammered that lesson into my psyche for many years. But Jorem seemed to believe her, and his instincts had already proven their worth several times since we’d met.
“Thanks for the help,” I said, holstering my weapon. “If you are lying, you had better start running now. I will return.”
I nodded to Jorem, and the two of us slipped out of the house before any of the Brotherhood goons returned. Once we reached our horse a few minutes later, I turned and eyed my companion.
“You really believe that elf?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t,” he replied with a shrug. “Do all Senosi have trust issues?”