I sat, tense as a coiled spring, for twenty minutes before I finally surmised that he really had wanted me to meditate this time. That was the unexpected trick—
A wave of ice water splashed into my face and down over my body, cold enough to physically hurt and practically freeze my very soul. My pulse skyrocketed into double time as I leapt to my feet, prepared to spar Ryuu the moment he attacked.
Except I saw Ryuu calmly meditating in front of me. He, too, was drenched with water and surrounded by ice cubes—yet his breathing was calm and steady as if he’d fallen asleep. I heard a rumbling chuckle behind me. I turned to see Xuanwu shuffling away, carrying two empty pitchers.
Grumbling unhappily, I settled back down to the ground to resume my meditation, forcing myself not to shiver. Seven seconds after I closed my eyes, something struck my thigh like a whip, sending a flash of heat down my leg and causing me to yelp. Ryuu was running away from me with a bamboo shoot in his hands. I bolted after him, chasing him towards the ancient statue of Xuanwu in the forest behind his house. I found Ryuu there, seated in meditation rather than waiting to spar. But the fucker was smirking faintly.
9
I stood there, glaring at him for about ten minutes, watching his breathing pattern for the perfect opportunity. I dove, hitting him in a tackle, already positioning myself for a choke—
Only to find myself suddenly fighting back a leg-lock and eating cold dirt. I managed to slip out of it, but I wasn’t able to get the upper hand. Instead, he pinned me in a full mount, breathing easily as he effortlessly countered absolutely everything I tried. The sudden feeling of a man mounting me so completely, gave me a whole new perspective on Ryuu.
Where his Buddha story outside the shower had introduced me to his heart and his soul, him mounting me so easily and completely introduced me to the entirety of his physical presence.
He was…vast. Committed. He was obviously dangerously lethal, but I felt safe beneath him. Protected. He wasn’t going to give me an inch, but he wasn’t going to let anything serious happen to me. Here, he was my enemy, but only so that he could make me into the best possible form of myself in the real world.
His chest radiated heat from beneath his cold, damp clothes, and his natural scent filled my nostrils as he bent over me, fighting to trap my arm above my head. He breathed steadily into my ear as I managed to slip out of his grip, and I was panting heavily as I tried to get him into a wrist lock.
In that moment, I realized that he had unintentionally attacked me with an entirely different and unexpected tactic. Distraction via confused and starving hormones. We were a man and a woman, sweating, panting, and rolling around across the ground with only two layers of wet fabric between us.
Which was when he slipped into another hold, sensing my distraction. I tapped out and he calmly slipped back into the mount, his face giving me no indication on whether he had noticed what had distracted me.
I shoved away the thoughts, feeling angry at myself for such an immature reaction. I gripped his lapels with both hands, gritting my teeth as I struggled to worm my hips into a better position. Ryuu fluidly moved with me rather than shutting me down with force. He let me burn away my energy and strength by giving me just enough rope to hit a dead-end after expending more energy than necessary.
When I saw the smirk on his face, I punched him in the ribs, annoyed that my eyes kept latching onto his exposed chest of their own accord. It made me feel guilty. As if I was betraying Nate.
Even though I was having very mixed feelings about Nate at the moment, it was no excuse for a wandering eye. Ryuu was being professional. I was the one making it into something else.
Except…
Ryuu carried around the stupid sword Nate had melted. Like he was proud of it and idolized Nate—which only made my guilt worse. I continued to struggle, but I found myself talking before I consciously chose to do so. “Why do you lug that melted katana around with you everywhere?” I hissed.
He met my eyes, looking strangely calm. He was sweating and breathing heavier than usual, but his mind was at peace, as if he weren’t truly putting in any effort so far. “The blade is your baggage, not mine,” he murmured. “I’ll release it whenever you unshoulder it.”
I froze as if he’d stabbed me in the gut. “My baggage?” I asked, breathlessly.
He nodded. “When you are willing to call it what it is, the blade can be tossed aside.”
“It? What it?” I hissed, confused.
“Your relationship with Nate Temple, a man I deeply respect. That it.”
The strength left my muscles and I felt myself melt into the dirt, staring into his deep dark eyes from only inches away. I felt very, very small in that moment.
He calmly extracted himself, realizing that I was now worthless as a sparring partner. Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and settled into his meditation.
There was no more fighting after that. Just a long, silent, two-hour meditation. I didn’t ask about the melted blade again, and it took me a very long time to clear my head and focus on my meditation.
Ryuu called our session in a soft, soothing tone, asking me to open my eyes. He gave me a few moments to fully slip out of my trance, and I felt like I was hovering about two inches over the ground.
Then he stood, pulled me to my feet, and motioned for me to follow him back to the house. I did so in silence. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of him mounting me—how imposing his presence was when he was in his element. I’d been mounted by sparring partners much larger and stronger than Ryuu, and none of them had seemed as overwhelming as the ninja with the calm face.
Of course, the mounting was stuck in my mind for more…unprofessional reasons as well, if I was being honest. It had been a long time since this girl had been in such an intimate situation. Nothing inappropriate had—or would have—happened, but I still felt guilty at the errant thoughts.
The fact of the matter was that I had never trained with someone as casually talented as Ryuu. I was beginning to appreciate just how good he really was in all manner of martial arts, not just with a sword and a cloak that made him invisible. I was beginning to realize exactly what Xuanwu saw in him, and just how useful he was as my bodyguard—how much of an honor it was to have him volunteer for the role.
Surely, Xuanwu had more important things for Ryuu to be doing, but I never heard either of them mention it. I never saw any meaningful looks between the two. Never any doubtful or frustrated looks from his fellow ninjas. Never even a questioning look from them to their boss. They trusted him. Period.
They trained and they meditated, never growing bored or anxious of the repetition or showing any expectation to what it was all for. I began to realize that this was what they lived for.
To better themselves. Fighting monsters was just a perk of the job. I knew they were policing the streets in Ryuu’s absence. They often gave him reports after we finished training—as I struggled to compose myself—but the reports never lasted more than a minute or two.
Whatever was happening in Kansas City was nothing to be concerned about, apparently. Even though I saw men returning with fresh wounds a few times. I even saw a dead body once, but Ryuu had refused to let me question anyone. Xuanwu had backed him when I’d tried going over Ryuu’s head. It was one of the reasons I had wanted to walk the streets of Kansas City last night—to get a look for myself.
And what had I found? Legion.
Had Ryuu’s men been fighting demons this whole time? If so, why hadn’t he told me?
I didn’t trust myself to bring up such a difficult question right now. Not after our training today. I needed to clear my head. So, I focused on my Legion problem.
How does one get out of an unwanted proposal? Get some dirt on the groom-to-be. And who better to hand over some dirt than one of his own brothers. An angel. Not a low-ranking angel, either. I needed a big brother. One of those judgmental big brothers.
An archangel.
B
ut there were obvious pitfalls to asking an angel about his demonic sibling without drawing suspicion. I couldn’t, for example, let anyone know I needed the dirt because the demons were trying to force me into a marriage. If they heard even a whisper of that, they would lock me up for even the potential chance that it was true. I would be guilty by association.
Also, my mother hadn’t just hid me from Hell. She had hidden me from Heaven, too. So, I couldn’t trust them either. I needed to string them along just as much as I was stringing the demon-groom along.
I needed to carefully bring the family together and introduce a little Jerry Springer into their lives.
And hope I had enough bouncers on the stage. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how I might use it to wrap up my loose ends with the rebels and possibly even whip the Sanguine Council into the palm of my hand. But first, it was time to head back to Castle Dracula for some food, a nice long bath, and a lot of sleep.
Because tomorrow was going to be a big day.
10
I returned to Castle Dracula via Gateway, rolling my eyes as Ryuu leapt through ahead of me with his sword drawn. I released my magic, and the portal puffed out, leaving us standing on the ramparts of an upper balcony of the Keep—an area I had designated as the Drop Zone for Gateways. The full moon shone down on the Keep, bathing it in a pale glow. The swift change from day to night always jarred me—scratching some primitive instinct in my brain to seek shelter from nocturnal hunters.
Except I was one of those nocturnal hunters. And I was the queen of every other nocturnal hunter here. Ryuu sheathed his katana, having found no immediate threats, and waited silently. I thought about saying something but decided against it, still slightly flustered from our wrestling and his comments about the warped blade tucked into his belt.
Your baggage, not mine, he’d said. Was he upset at how I was treating his new best friend? His face was too closed off for me to read him, although his eyes watched me like a bird of prey, seeming as if they saw entirely too much of my secret thoughts.
Had he accurately picked up on my body’s instinctive attraction to him when we’d been wrestling? What if that was what had made him admonish me about the luggage I was carrying around? Was he displeased about how I had subconsciously betrayed Nate Temple? He was too professional to outright say anything, or accuse me of any impropriety, but Ryuu was a man of honor. Deep honor. It was his creed.
Like Nate Temple. I realized I was feeling just about sick and tired of honorable men and the headaches they provided. I was currently feeling a craving for a barbarian with a temper, a good head for his mead, and who knew how to take what he wanted.
Think quieter, hussy, Sanguina’s words tickled my mind in a breathy whisper. I’m trying to sleep.
My cheeks grew flaming hot and Ryuu cocked his head curiously. You can hear me? Where are you? I thought back.
You are inside me. I hear all, even from the opposite side of the Keep, she replied dryly.
I pursed my lips and hurriedly made my way through a nearby archway that revealed a long flight of zigzagging stairs that led three floors below. I firmly put a vault door on my thoughts, tuning Sanguina out, before I started down. I had no privacy. None.
To punctuate that fact, Ryuu followed me like a faithful hound, giving me no more than ten feet of personal space. I sighed, knowing that snapping at him would only lead to him giving me a shorter leash.
He meant well, and he wasn’t wrong, but chains—even unseen ones—chafed me something fierce. Hence the random drunken barbarian fantasy.
I exited the stairs and stepped out into one of the main halls. Thick red carpets stretched down the center of the Keep’s hallways, reminding me of veins or arteries that kept the place alive by delivering the necessities of life from one organ or limb to another.
To that effect, the Keep even had diligent antibodies who worked around the clock.
I counted no less than a dozen servants in the vicinity, all wearing black silk suits or dresses lined with red at the hems. They were all human. I had given them the opportunity to return to Earth, only to learn that all of them had been born and raised here, going back generations. None had taken me up on my offer.
Which had been baffling to me. They preferred a land of eternal night with monsters over Earth. At first, I had assumed they were all blood donors and addicted to their victimhood, but that wasn’t the case at all. None of them had ever been bitten. Any who had desired such a thing had instead been turned into a vampire and moved out of the Keep. The Harkers had liked their housekeepers human and untainted, for whatever reason.
I hadn’t spent much time speaking to them because they always seemed to scurry away in fear that I was going to eat them for not dusting fast enough or bowing and curtsying low enough. But I always tried to smile, say hello, and compliment them in some small way as I passed. I even said please and thank you.
And I wasn’t actually sure of the proper term, but Sanguina called them all servants. I’d chosen to call the men valets and the women maids; they’d seemed surprised at the promotion. I knew they would come in handy for the big wedding.
As I made my way down the hall, I smiled and waved at each of them, even offering a few good afternoons if they didn’t slip away too quickly. They bowed and curtsied back, murmuring a polite response before resuming their dusting, sweeping, polishing, or transporting of linens, dishes, and anything else needing to be moved from one section of the Keep to another. I also had runners to deliver messages outside the Keep.
I passed a window and noticed the Coliseum in the distance. I had shut that down almost immediately. Dracula had used it much like the Romans of old had done—to provide violent entertainment for his people. The only problem had been that he’d kept his inventory of victims full by abducting humans and monsters from Earth to fight and die in the arena.
Since violence was a main staple of my new home, I had known I’d need to make a compromise or incite serious unrest. So, I had tacked a sign on the front that said Temporarily Closed for Improvements. Then I had set a meeting with Asterion, the Minotaur, to discuss his interest in making my Coliseum a satellite hub for his St. Louis Fight Nights. Because the current place he used let people fight to the death, but not actually die in real life. If you died at the Dueling Grounds, you woke up in your bed the next morning.
So, warriors could literally cut loose and fight as crazily as they desired, with no permanent harm.
Something like that at my Coliseum…would be perfect—and quite lucrative.
Because Asterion’s place only had benches and a couple of food carts, while I had a massive stadium and a hungry audience. I also had all sorts of new monsters to play with, like ninja baboons and skeletons, and the shifter bears were soon coming back to Kansas City. I had plans to invite them to live here with me, since they preferred a wilder, primitive lifestyle.
I saw a pretty brunette eyeing Ryuu sidelong as she cleaned a table, so I veered towards her, smiling as I spoke in a soft tone. “He is single and going through a difficult time. I saw him crying yesterday, so try to be nice to him. I think he’s lonely.”
The maid’s shock at my direct conversation slowly shifted to piqued curiosity as I continued down the hall, grinning to myself. “Take that, Mr. Ninja-face,” I breathed under my breath.
I spotted a tall, well-built valet with long, pale hair diligently dusting a vase, not even seeming to notice my passing. “Hello,” I said, cheerfully. He jolted, knocking the vase off the table. I caught it with a tendril of magic and set it back in place with a reassuring smile. He paled, swallowing nervously between profuse apologies. I waved off his unease. “Sorry to frighten you.”
He bowed stiffly, waiting for me to continue on before resuming his work.
Ryuu arched an eyebrow at me and I shrugged. “Just making friends.”
He nodded suspiciously, glancing back at the valet and the maid—only to catch her eyeing him thoughtfully. I bit back a laugh and con
tinued on before Ryuu spotted the guilty look on my face. I skidded to a halt to find Xuanwu and Qinglong in a side room off the hall, speaking privately. I shot Ryuu a frown and he shrugged pensively, looking equally surprised.
I strolled into the room and their conversation cut off as they turned to face me with warm smiles. Xuanwu was holding something behind his back that he obviously didn’t want me to see, but I let that go for now.
“Hey, guys. What are you doing here?”
Xuanwu smiled eagerly, as did Qinglong. “Samael summoned us here to tell us the good news about Lilith saying yes,” he rumbled.
Qinglong bobbed his head, his catfish-like mustache bobbing at the motion. “He also mentioned a bachelor party tonight.”
A slow grin split my cheeks and I nodded excitedly, seeing multiple ancillary benefits. “That’s just what he needs. You could head down to the Village and cut loose,” I suggested. “When do you two ever get to have fun? Judging by Ryuu’s permanent glare, I’m assuming it has been a few hundred years.”
Ryuu smirked, rolling his eyes. I could tell that the suggestion appealed to him, though. Perfect.
Xylo walked by, wearing a cowboy hat and a leather duster for some bizarre reason, so focused on his destination that he didn’t seem to notice us. Cain was keeping pace with him, speaking rapidly. “I’m telling you Claire will think it’s hilarious. Just put this in her shampoo…”
I groaned, shaking my head. Cain was incorrigible, and he loved talking Xylo into terrible pranks. Messing with a girl’s shampoo was a great way to introduce yourself to excruciating agony. Since Claire was a shifter polar bear, I almost hoped Cain was successful. That way I could watch a polar bear rampaging through the Keep chasing the two brothers down. Cain must have bought Xylo the cowboy getup—which was actually sweet, because Xylo thought hats helped him fit in with us non-skeleton types, so he had begun collecting them.
Anghellic: Feathers and Fire Book 8 Page 6