by Lucy Auburn
My only frustration, a dirty one I haven't yet admitted to, is the fact that there's still that barrier of latex between us. The more I get to taste him, have him in me, listen to his mouth mutter dirty words in my ears as he teases me with the head of his erection, the more I want all of Levi Ward inside me, no barriers to be found at all. It scares me that I want it—and that the possible consequences of having it don't frighten me at all anymore.
So I startle a little as he slides out of me, lays down on the bed with his mouth near my cheek, and tiredly mumbles, "I love you so, so damn much."
Beneath my rib cage, my heart does something that can only be described as freaking the everloving fuck out. The breath leaves my lungs, and adrenaline courses through my still-trembling thoroughly-screwed body, making the sex we just had feel like it never happened, because suddenly I'm tense all over.
Chuckling a little, Levi reaches down to pull the condom off. "I had the feeling that would freak you out. You don't have to say it back, you know."
"You're... you're the first one to say it."
"Yeah," he lazily drawls, "I've always been ahead of the pack. Except when it comes to fucking—as you well know, I can keep myself from coming as long as it takes to satisfy you." Dropping a kiss on my brow, he tells me, "What can I say, I'm a giver. The only thing I expect in return is that you let me screw you senseless and eat all the snacks in your pantry."
"They're Eve's snacks!" I call out as he jumps up to dispose of the condom, his feet briefly quiet from the enduring magic of our long, deep, intimate connection. Levi doesn't hear me, though, just goes to the pantry to grab a bag a chips and heads towards the door as someone knocks. "You shouldn't answer the door without—"
"Hello." Grayson raises a brow as Levi does exactly what I told him not to: answers the door naked, sweat glistening across his subtly toned body, his softened penis swaying between his thighs. "Not that I haven't seen this before, but has anyone ever taught you manners? Wolves raise boys better than this."
"Wouldn't know. I was raised by circus performers." Levi opens the door enough for Grayson to pass through and settles down onto Eve's sofa, still naked, to dip his fingers into the chip bag. "I knew it was you. Heard the cane and everything. Figured you wouldn't mind the fact that I warmed her up."
This is when Grayson sees me, naked, sweaty, post-coital and still a little freaked out by Levi's declaration, the sheets twisted beneath my body, blonde hair curling at the nape of my neck. He quickly moves into the room and shuts the door behind him, only to hesitate with a deer-in-the-headlights look.
Recovering, he dryly points out to Levi, "Not everyone is as bicurious-adjacent as you, my batty friend. Did it occur to you that I might not want to have sex with Ellen right after you?"
Levi just shrugs. "I'm sure it's happened before. You just didn't know it. Not like I came inside her."
I actually find myself slapping my forehead with my palm like a cartoon character.
Thankfully, Grayson is used to Levi's bullshit, and he doesn't seem to mind. Glancing back and forth between them, I can't help but notice the way he keeps looking over at me—and remembering how he acted when he saw me dressed up to go to the Shadow Fold meeting. He may be prickly, but Grayson at least doesn't act jealous... as long as he gets me, he'll let others have me, but doesn't like to be left out.
So I dare to lick my lips, look over him, and suggest, "I could be ready for another round, if you want me to... warm you up."
Levi calls out, "She means she'll suck your dick and let you fuck her, dude."
"What a romantic you are," Grayson says dryly. "I'm shocked you haven't brought her down the aisle and made an honest woman of her yet."
His mouth may be scornful, but something in Grayson's eyes tells a different story. He wants to ravish me. However competitive he might be, he doesn't mind the thought of being inside me after another man. Part of him might even like the idea of leaving his mark over Levi's.
So I part my legs just a little, splay myself out on the sheets, and bite my lower lip in his direction, twirling with a piece of my hair.
Levi glances over his shoulder towards the bed, raises a brow, and looks at Grayson expectantly. Waiting to see what he does next. How he reacts.
His eyes trail down my legs, to my still-red and throbbing pussy.
Shifting on his legs, his weight noticeably changes—and not because of his limp.
"Oh, fuck it." Grayson's mouth turns wicked, and he walks over to me, slow and deliberate in his steps. "Maybe it makes me a shameless pervert, but I can't resist the sight of you, Ellen. Even when you've just been fucked by the most obnoxious prick there is."
"Prick? Are you British now?" Levi snorts and lays out on the sofa, chip bag on his chest. I don't need foresight to know that Eve is going to kill me. "Enjoy my handiwork, Gray. I'll be back when I've worked up an appetite for seconds."
"Don't wait around," Grayson says, though he wickedly adds, "Or if you do, enjoy the show."
Then he reaches down, grabs my ankle, jerks me towards the foot of the bed, and tosses his cane aside.
As he makes quick work of his clothes and gets onto the bed to straddle me, I find my mouth watering. His cock is already half-hard when I wrap my lips around it, his heady taste on my tongue, tight fingers in my blonde hair. I engulf him and suck him until he's erect and greedy in my mouth, and I'm wriggling on the sheets again, hungry to find out just how many times I can come in a row before pleasure crosses over into pain.
I don't have to wait long. Almost as soon as Grayson is hard and throbbing, he pulls out of my mouth, flips me over on the bed, and spreads himself out on top of me. Kissing the back of my neck, he meets my lips in a brief show of his desire—then pull my hips up off the sheets, parts my legs with his knee, and forces his cock inside me in one single, long stroke that leaves him bottomed out completely.
My cry of pleasure and shock is enough to rouse Levi from the sofa.
The sight of Grayson fucking me with abandon, raining kisses on my skin and digging fingers into my breasts and hips in turn, makes him hard as well.
Until I have two hard dicks from two cocky men to contend with.
Thankfully, I have a mouth. And hands. Plus, my men know what they're doing—both of them find my clit with their fingers as I suck on Levi greedily and arch up against Grayson, whose panting breaths tell me he's close to coming.
"Fuck," he mutters. "This is to hot. Who knew."
As he grabs my hair and pushes his cock against the back of my throat, coming in a warm splash, Levi brags, "Oh, I knew."
Grayson's fingers make me pussy clench and trembling around him in waves. He groans and bites down on my neck as he comes. Pulling out of my mouth, Levi paints my lips with his cum and watches us with a pleased expression. I lick my lips and swallow, moaning softly, unable to even think straight.
I can feel Grayson release himself inside me, all his tension, pain, and bitterness briefly leaving him. He sighs against my hair and pulls my chin around to kiss my mouth, despite the taste of another man on me—and my body clenches around him in pleasure at the taboo nature of it all.
As he pulls me down onto the bed inside me, leaving his softening cock in my body, grabbing me close, Grayson says something in my ear so softly I barely think I hear it at all.
"Goddamnit, Ellen Arizona, I think I love you."
A moment later I realize that in the heat of it all, we forgot to use protection.
And I wonder what I would see if I look into the future right now.
As soon as the thought enters my head, my Mental Affinity crashes down on me. I hold my breath—and see, just for a moment, a pregnancy test.
Negative.
A strange mixture of emotions moves through my chest as the vision clears. I don't know why I'm disappointed. We never should've risked it in the first place.
Grayson realizes this a moment later, cursing and apologizing—and I silence him with a kiss, while Levi heads to Eve's ba
throom to route through her stash of protection.
"Don't worry about it," I tell him, though my mind, and my heart, are both racing. "We all got caught up in the moment."
Me most of all.
The day after my enlightening evening with Grayson and Levi is a day off from classes, which of course means I have to spend it with my research. We've been given a brief reprieve from training, and I know the guys are eager to spend it together—but first, I want to find out a few important things. Mostly about the man who made me, whose blood turned me into a killer and now, an elite assassin.
Thankfully it turns out that a little orgy kills our weaknesses for longer than holding hands or one-on-one sex, because this morning I woke up with my eyesight intact, phone buzzing with texts from Levi about being sneaky and Grayson concerning his complete lack of pain. They're already eager to try it again, with or without sword crossing—once, of course, my pussy is in shape to take another double session.
First, though, I want to use all my remaining eyesight time reading as much as possible.
My father killed a lot of people in his career, even though he died relatively young, even for an assassin. Shadow Fold members, it turns out, usually make it to retirement—I suppose the power of our magic is part of that. His death by the hands of an immortal Brutus was an exception to a general rule.
While he worked within the Shadow Fold, Vincent Arizona didn't just kill anyone. He had the skill and seniority to choose many of his assignments. When he did, he picked certain types of people: dictators, abusers, and especially wife beaters.
If I hadn't killed Jack, my father might have crawled out of the grave just to strangle him to death.
There's not much in his files about how he killed his Marks; most of that is redacted, apparently because the Shadow Fold is paranoid about giving away too many secrets concerning its powers. But a name in the file catches my attention, written under the heading "close associates with knowledge of the existence of the Shadow Fold." Penelope Arizona is listed there in black blocky letters.
My mother knew who my father was, and what he did. I've suspected it ever since she told me her dying words, not to mention our conversations after her death, but seeing it listed as a fact makes things feel different. Part of me is glad, proud even, that she would've understood what I'm doing. But I can't help wondering why she never told me, especially after I killed Jack. She must've known what would awaken inside me on that day.
I also, most critically, learn the secret of the pentagram. And it shocks me to my core just a little to realize what a strong hand Lady Fate has. She steered me in this direction somehow, of that I'm sure.
The pentagram around my neck was created by the first of the Arizonas, Glenavon Arizona, who everyone called Glen. He made it because he saw it in a vision and felt that a higher power was guiding his hand—that, or just all the booze he drank.
What shocks me to realize is its purpose.
According to this file, it's capable of connecting a Fourfold Affinity bearer like me with their Conduits, sharing powers among the members. Something that makes the bearer strong enough to survive anything—even, I think, an all-powerful immortal psycho Roman senator.
Reading further, it becomes clear that I could even use it to strip his powers temporarily and weaken him. The Fourfold Affinity, combined with the Conduits, and anchored by the pentagram, gives the bearer that ability. Which is why he was so afraid of it that he killed my entire family trying to look for it. And why he didn't kill me, the one person who can destroy it and make him truly immortal—not that I ever would.
I plan on doing the exact opposite to him as soon as I have my hands on the bastard.
With the knife my dad stored it in, which can be used to stab him, I'll be able to take him out once and for all.
Chapter 26
"There's something I have to tell you... fuck, this feels way too formal. We should find some chairs. Where do they store those? Right, in the closet, I uh... I forgot. Let's just... make a circle."
I can't stop pacing around; when I gathered the guys in the training room with me for a serious afternoon discussion, I thought I was just going to tell them about the pentagram, but now something else keeps bubbling up inside me.
My nervousness is impossible to hide, for obvious reasons. Mason keeps shooting me confused looks. He just came from his own morning training session with a different instructor, and apparently he was working his upper arms, because the muscles there are delightfully sculpted right now. I can't stop wondering what it would feel like to have him fuck me up against a wall again—even though just last night I had Grayson and Levi for multiple rounds of pleasure.
Wyatt notes, "You're lo-lo-staring r-r-ight at us, Ellen. How?"
I can't help glancing over at Levi, who has been conspicuously quieter than usual, and Grayson, who has his cane but hasn't been leaning any weight against it. It wouldn't be fair to keep this new info from the others—especially given its implications for their own weaknesses—but I do worry that either Mason or Wyatt, or both, won't be able to deal with the thought of me having a threesome without them.
Then again, maybe they won't care. We already know what's going on between the five of us. It's the talking about it that we haven't quite done.
"It turns out that an extended connection with multiple Conduits kind of... makes my weakness go away for longer than just uh, a little contact. Especially if it's... intimate... for some reason." I can feel heat creeping up my neck, and rush to clarify, "Though my vision is already getting a bit worse. Like I need glasses. It might not last that long. Just for a while."
Mason puts it together quickly, and looks a little horrified—not at me, but at Grayson. "You actually gave in to all his insisting a devil's threeway isn't that big of a deal?"
"Yeah, and why should I regret it?" Grayson looks embarrassed, and isn't making eye contact with Levi, but he strides towards Mason without putting his cane down on the ground. "I mean sure, I saw more of the ass in one night than I've ever wanted to, in ways that I uh... well, let's just say it wasn't what I'd planned. But it worked. My leg doesn't hurt at all. I might even do it again, if Ellen is up for it."
Ellen definitely isn't up for it right now; for lack of a better word, last night my pussy was thoroughly wrecked. And I'm not sure it would be fair to put the same guys onto my schedule so soon after we just had sex. But I can't help biting my lip and looking over at Mason and Wyatt, wondering if they might be up for a similar night.
I can especially imagine how nice it might be to have Wyatt's strong arms lift me up and wrap me around Mason's body, his cock sliding in, and maybe with enough warmup and lube...
Well. A girl can dream. Some things might not be possible, though. Especially if they involve the crossing of swords—or, to put it literally, the touching of two men's dicks.
Levi brags, "Last night I snuck into Headmaster Shu's office and stole some of her liquor from the liquor cabinet. Didn't wake up a soul. It's like I'm a new man!"
Wyatt looks over at me, and I try not to feel crushed by the expression of betrayal in his eyes. It is a little hopeful to see curiosity soon follow it, though. I bet he's wondering what stories he could tell if he just let Levi get a handjob while he makes passionate love to me, with his eyes firmly closed to avoid seeing too much.
Of course, that would only be the first step in my ultimate plan to get all the guys used to being together in the room with me, for the sake of my ever-crowded schedule if nothing else.
"I know this is awkward," I tell them. "But it happened, and it gave us new information! And, well, it's not like you guys didn't know I was having sex with all of you. It's different to talk about it, but avoiding the subject isn't really helping."
"I guess." Mason sighs, tugging nervously at the end of one of his braids. "I just want to make sure we keep things fair. I mean, as fair as any situation like this can be. But if sharing you means I get to have you, then Ellen, I'm not complaining.
Not one bit."
Looking over at Wyatt, I sigh in relief to see him nod in agreement. Then my heart stutters to a stop as he says, "I l-love you too... much to l-l-lose you."
Heat blooms in my cheeks. I swear, when it's raining emotion, it pours. If I didn't know better I'd think they'd all gotten together to time this just right to throw me off my balance.
"That's sweet," I tell Wyatt, wishing I was ready to say the same to him in return. "I just... I'm not ready for much more than this right now. With any of the four of you. But I want to get to know you better, and get closer, and let you in." Levi snorts. "I mean emotionally, obviously I've had your dicks inside me. Not all at once! Just—ack. Look, none of this will matter if we don't find Brutus. And I think I know now what to do with him once we do. I found this file about the pentagram..."
As I tell them everything, the world around me slowly fades, and soon I'm blind again. I have to ask Wyatt to take my hand so I can keep going, and he gladly does, no doubt thankful to be able to ask questions without difficulty.
With our hands touching, it's hard not to want to give him what he needs from me.
It should be so simple.
It's just a declaration of love.
I think I feel it. I know that I'm close. Last night, after Levi and Grayson... I couldn't stop imagining it in the shower. Wondering what it would feel like to say it back. The moment is coming, I can taste it. I'm at the cliff's edge. I just don't know if I'll survive the fall.
So it's not a surprise when, after we agree to return after lunch and train with the pentagram, Mason flags me down and takes my hands. I can almost hear the words before he says them.
"I don't want to pressure you. And I realize you're not there yet. But I've known for a while, and I can't keep myself from telling you anymore. Especially now. Ellen..." He squeezes my hands, his face so earnest. "I love you. There. That's it. That's all. We don't have to talk about it now. Let's just go to lunch."