by L. A. Sable
Bastian had the nerve to look offended, although barely suppressed laughter sparkled in his eyes. “You’re spoiling all the fun.”
I cast him a narrow-eyed look but decided to focus on him later, instead turning toward West. “You and I are going to have a talk about whatever happened in the woods, but not right now. Later, much later, when I stop wanting to crawl under the nearest rock.” He opened his mouth to say something, and I cut him off with a sharp wave of my hand. Whatever he was going to say, I really didn’t want to hear. “You need to go take a walk or a run, a flight even, I don’t know. Do whatever you have to do to work off this excess energy because none of us have time for it.”
West brought himself to his full intimidating height as he loomed over me, but the frown on his face was almost a pout. “What makes you think that you get to tell me what to do, little one.”
“You can do what I’m asking you to do or…” I hesitate while my mind searches for a suitable threat that might be enough to make him walk away, at least temporarily. “I can have a conversation with Bastian instead. In private.”
He balked at that, expression twisting with frustration and unhappiness. His gaze cut to Bastian, who only smiled wider, and then to Cynth who seemed ready to kill everyone in the room with his bare hands. “Fine. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Don’t wait up,” Bastian replied sweetly.
Then I turned on him. “As for you. Darius made it clear that he doesn’t want us training together anymore. Go find somewhere else to be.”
Bastian clutched his hand to his chest, expression a mockery of hurt despite the glimmer of humor in his eyes. “You wound me, beautiful. I thought we had something special.”
“You thought it would be fun to mess with me and everyone else,” I wryly pointed out. “Mission accomplished, now get lost.”
The Fae bowed exaggeratedly low until the ends of his long silver hair brushed the floor. “As my lady commands, so shall it be.”
I had a feeling that the meaning of those words didn’t translate literally because Bastian acted as the mood struck him, but I would take it for now. “Goodbye, Bastian.”
And of course, he had to have the last word.
“Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.” He waggled his eyebrows as he looked past me to Cynth who I knew without turning to look had a scowl on his face. “The walls have ears and there are curious eyes everywhere.”
With that, he backed toward the gathering shadows behind him and disappeared.
“Faeries might be the most annoying creatures on the planet,” Cynth huffed, glaring at the empty air where Bastian had been standing only moments ago. “They love showing off.”
He seemed to forget for the briefest moment that he hated me, but I had no doubt that he would remember soon enough. “Bastian does have an oversized personality.”
“It’s almost as if he’s compensating for something.”
The remark was meant to be biting but immediately made me think of what Bastian might be hiding in the slim cut pants he wore and if the carpet matched the gorgeous drapes. Shaking myself from the sexual turn of my thoughts, I focused on the fact that I was stuck in this den of snakes with little help in sight. I don’t want to know what it says about me that I was thinking about sparkly Fae dick when I could be dead in a couple of days. It was all about priorities.
“Let’s talk about this training we’re supposed to do,” I said. My gesture encompassed the room of dead animals. “I assume you don’t want to do it in here. So where are we going?”
At the question, Cynth seemed to realize that he had spent the last few moments actually having a civilized conversation with me, the person he hated most in the world. He glared at me, gaze moving slowly up my form as he studied me with obvious contempt. “And what makes you think that I would ever condescend to do anything to help you?”
With the way he was looking at me, it was hard not to remember that the last time we’d been alone together, he’d put his best effort into murdering me. “Because that’s what Darius told you to do.”
“I listened to Darius once, when he issued orders that you were to be brought in alive.” His gaze moved to the animals on the wall, contemplative as if he were imagining that my head was mounted right alongside them. “And I’ve regretted following that demand ever since. When I look at you, all I see are pieces. Try again.”
I looked uneasily around the room, realizing there wasn’t so much as a weapon in sight. Unless I could figure out how to remove the horn from that stuffed unicorn, I was only left with my bare hands and temperamental magic. Not exactly inspiring odds. “Well, there’s a good chance that you’ll have a front-row seat when Valentine decides to flay the skin from my bones and use it to make a new leather jacket. If I don’t survive until that point, then you’re only robbing yourself of the pleasure in watching.”
Cynth cocked his head to the side, looking very much like the giant eagle behind him that was mounted with its wings spread in mid-flight as it landed on imaginary prey. “I don’t buy this helpless act for one minute, you know. It’s how you tricked my brother and it seems to be working on the others because they’re morons, but I see right through it.” He took a step closer, looming over me as I fought the urge to back away. He was like any predator, if I ran then he would be compelled to chase me. “What secrets are you hiding?”
“I…don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” The words came too jumbled and too fast as air trapped in my throat. I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t scared of him, I’d been scared of his brother too. And I had no idea how I’d managed to save myself then, but I wasn’t optimistic that the universe would gift me another Hail Mary pass. “I don’t have any secrets.”
He studied my face for a long moment, a note of curiosity there despite the aggression. For a moment, we locked eyes and I couldn’t look away even though I tried. His eyes were multiple shades of green that seemed to swirl together the longer I looked, like a whirlpool rushing in a circle toward the center. These were the sort of eyes that you could drown in and be lost. Just another thing that made him so very dangerous.
Abruptly, he turned away, seeming to come to a sudden decision. “Meet me in the anteroom for House Night, if you dare.”
The challenge in his words was obvious and sent an answering shiver down my spine. But Cynth didn’t wait for my response, simply turning on his heel and stomping away. Not for the first time, I wondered what the hell I was still doing here. These walls were already full of enemies and the biggest bad in the universe would be arriving in a matter of days. I wasn’t strong enough to withstand a confrontation, not even as bait. Even with Bastian and West seeming to temporarily be on my side, the deck was stacked so high against me that it blocked out the sun.
I could run again, I told myself. Swim to shore if I had to, change my name again and hope that I managed to stay one step ahead of my enemies for the remaining years of what would be a miserable life.
But there had been a strange sort of possibility hidden in Cynth’s eyes, even as I convinced myself that I’d imagined it. Working together seemed out of the question, but uniting was the only way to survive. Otherwise, Valentine would destroy us all.
Coming to the only decision that seemed possible, I squared my shoulders and followed his disappearing form into the darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
jINX
The anteroom of House Night was darker than I remembered it, the only light a handful of candles mounted on the wall that cast a red glow around the room. The ambiance was creepy, but also strangely seductive.
It took several moments for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, so I didn’t realize that Cynth was there or how close he stood until my arms were caught in an unyielding grip and pulled above my head. His movements were so quick that there wasn’t time to even attempt to fight him off. Straps that dangled from the ceiling were wrapped around my wrists, binding them together and keeping them suspended. I was thor
oughly trapped by the time he pulled back.
“What the hell is this?” I demanded, as fear rose to clog my throat and I cursed myself for trusting a vampire, especially this one.
“The lesson,” he answered easily, voice floating over me like wind in the dark. “The only lesson that matters. It’s about truth and pain. You’ll choose which one to give me.”
I wanted to make a further protest, but knew it would be useless. My hands twisted against the restraints which only resulted in an increase in the painful tension on my fragile skin. He had used some type of rope that only tightened further the more that I pulled against it. “How is this supposed to help me learn to control my magic?”
“It’s cute that you think I give a shit about your magic.” Cynth stepped up behind me, close enough that I could feel the coolness of his skin even through the shit he wore. He made some sort of movement and the bindings tightened, lifting me higher in the air so that I had to stand on tiptoes to maintain my balance and not swing freely in the air. “Now, you have a choice: truth or pain.”
“I assume at some point you’re going to explain what the fuck that means.”
He came around to face me, studying me with eyes that glowed green in the darkness. “I want the truth about what happened with my brother.”
If my hands were free, I’d tear those beautiful eyes out if I could. Although, it was hard to say if I was angrier at him or myself for being stupid enough to end up in this situation. But I whatever Cynth wanted from me, I had no intention of giving him the pleasure of providing it. “That old story has been told a million times. Or are you interviewing me for the documentary?”
His pale hand rose to my face to grip my chin painfully hard as his gaze bored into mine. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing that he wasn’t planning to do to me,” I snapped.
“Truth or pain.” Cynth released his hold on my chin as he stepped back. His other hand rose and came down in a movement too quick to follow. It was only when the sharp shock of pain bloomed that I realized he had slapped me across the bare thigh.
“Fuck, ouch,” I cried. My toes slipped from underneath me as I flailed away from the blow, even though he had already stepped back by that point. “What the hell?”
Cynth watched me, face expressionless, as I struggled to get my feet back under me again. The sharp pain had faded into a heat that spread out from where his palm had struck my skin. I knew there would be a perfect imprint there of his hand.
“How did you do it?” he asked, voice toneless.
“Do what?” I bit out, trying not to focus on how much my thigh ached.
“How did you compel him? No witch should have been able to accomplish it.”
He wanted an answer to the question that I’d been asking myself over and over again for months. But I couldn’t tell him something what I didn’t know myself. “If I’d figured that out then I probably wouldn’t be hanging from my wrists and being interrogated by you. You’re wasting your time.”
“I have all the time in the world. Vampires are immortal, remember?”
This time his hand came down on the lower part of my butt cheek exposed by my hiked up dress. I bit back a cry of pain because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “You can hit me as many times as you want, but I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
“Fair enough.” He reached behind him and pulled something back. I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening as he held up a whip with a base thicker than my ankle. It tapered to a braided leather end that he stroked along my cheek. “Hit you as many times as I want, you said. Deal.”
“Wait,” I cried as he backed up and raised his arm. Part of me didn’t actually believe that he would be able to get away with this, but then I remembered where I was. Anyone who passed by would consider whatever I suffered well deserved for being stupid enough to get myself into this situation in the first place. No help would be coming, even if there were any witnesses. I had a feeling that Cynth had deliberately chosen to bring me here because the chance of random passerby was low. “
He cracked the whip through the air and I winced as it snapped loudly enough that I could almost feel the sound against my skin. His hand was nothing compared to this. “Give me something worth more than the pleasure I’ll get from breaking that lily white skin.”
I wanted to scream at him that if I could replicate the trick I’d pulled on Ceres, that I wouldn’t have spent so much of my life living in fear. I had no idea how I’d done what I did. Valentine had also wanted to know, and the mysterious answer to that question had sustained his interest in me until I escaped him.
“Your brother bit me,” I told him, squeezing my eyes shut against the memory. This was the last thing that I wanted to remember, especially when I was trapped with the closest relative of the person I had killed. “He fed from me and tried to suck my soul from my body. I can’t explain what happened after that.”
“He fed.” His voice caressed my skin, hot with anger. “And what would he want with you? You aren’t even worthy to be food.”
My shoulders ached as I hung from the straps. The pain in my backside had receded to a dull ache, but I knew more was coming. Cynth wouldn’t be satisfied until he had answers that didn’t exist. “Clearly, your brother disagreed. He bound me to him, there was no escape from that save death.”
“You lie. Ceres Killoran would never bind a useless witch with no power and no position. It’s an insult to even suggest it.”
In a moment of clarity, I realized that Cynth didn’t just hate me because I’d been responsible for his brother’s death, but because that death never should have happened in the first place. Anyone who’d been taking bets prior to that day would never have put money on my survival against a full member of the Blooded, particularly not one as powerful as Ceres had been. Cynth wanted to understand what had happened because he couldn’t accept that his brother had made a mistake, couldn’t accept that the man he had idolized had been defeated by the most unlikely opponent ever.
The embarrassment of it alone would have been enough to make him murderous.
“You really looked up to him, didn’t you?” I watched the play of emotions cross his face as he glared into the darkness behind me. There was anger there, but also regret and a sense of loss so deep that I could pity him if that emotion wouldn’t get me killed. “It must be hard to deal with.”
“Stop trying to understand me. I have no interest in your condescension.” He held up the whip again and cracked it through the air, sending an anticipatory shiver through my body even though he hadn’t hit me with it yet. “You never should have come here and I’ll make you regret it to your dying breath. If you can’t tell me what I want to know, then there isn’t any more use for you.”
The stress of the situation had finally broken my mind. Even though I knew that he was moments from snapping with a bull whip in his hand, I had no mental bandwidth left to care about it. I stared at him in the dim light, recognizing that he was all killer instinct on the outside and little lost vampire on the inside.
“You want to understand what happened,” I bit out on a humorless laugh. “More than you have tried and failed. Unless you’re planning to open one of my veins yourself, then you’ll probably never know. Now, cut me down.”
Instead of anger, a new intent shone in his eyes as Cynth stared down at me. The bull whip fell from his fingers to slap against the floor as he pressed closer. One cold hand gripped my chin and forced it to the side as his attention turned to the bend of the neck where I knew my pulse fluttered visibly against the skin.
“What an interesting idea,” he murmured. “In the interests of science. How else will I know what you did to Cynth without recreating the experience?”
“Okay, wait.” I tried to swing away from him, but he caught me easily with his other arm that wrapped around my waist and gripped my hip with enough force to bruise. “I shouldn’t have said that. You don’t want to bite me. I disgust you rem
ember?”
His mouth lowered over my neck as he audibly inhaled. “The scent of shifter is all over you, which might be the only thing worse than whatever it is you smell like normally. You two must have spent hours rolling around in the dirt together.”
“You sound jealous,” I snapped as he leaned closer and my fear ratcheted up higher. I desperately did not want him to bite me. Not simply because I was anticipating the pain of it, but because I’d barely survived my last encounter with a vampire. Ceres had brought me significantly more pain than just what came with sharp teeth piercing skin. And I wasn’t looking for a repeat. “And aren’t you worried about what people are going to say if they find out? You’re too good for me, right?”
But now that Cynth had come to a decision about what he wanted to do, there was no swaying him. His fingers traced along my collarbone, making the muscles of my belly clench. His gaze focused on the beating pulse in my neck, as if he was inexorably drawn to it and every other consideration faded into the background. The barest hint of fang was visible as his lips curled while he deeply inhaled. “Blood is blood.”
He spun me around with enough force that it made my head ache and for a moment I was on the verge of passing out. My back pressed against his front as one arm wrapped around my belly and the other gripped my head to wrench it to the side, exposing the long length of my neck as he loomed over me. My arms were still suspended over my head, making my shoulders ache as my body was wrenched against the restraints. But that pain faded in comparison to the awareness of what was coming next.
“You know vampires aren’t supposed to play with their food and if you drain me dry, Darius will rip out your fangs with a pair of rusty pliers.”