by Kim Faulks
I knew that feeling, that caged, controlled rage you couldn’t escape. I still carried the scars, even after my skin had long since healed.
But this…this was not just any shackle. These were purposely built, forged to inflict damage on Unseelie skin. This was iron, toxic to the men and women she ruled.
This was how a Queen controlled her people.
This was how she whispered words of love.
My knees shook as a lump formed in the back of my throat. “Let me through,” a dry hiss tore free. I tried to swallow, tried to push the pain deep inside. “Let. Me. Through.”
Thrust…thrust…thrust.
His hips were frantic now, punching forward until the tendons in his arms strained. The dark thatch of hair between his thighs glistened with sweat, but there was no cum in the slick curls, no residue of release. Only desperation as his thick cock twitched and pulsed, the thick head puncturing the air.
“Lorn, you can’t…” Rival growled.
All three men formed a guard, a barrier between me and his pain.
And through the door behind us…floated a woman’s laughter.
Hinges howled, the faint bitter breeze skimmed my burning cheeks before the door closed behind us with a bang.
Boroch tried to warn me, tried to make me understand.
But there was no understanding this.
There was only surviving.
Hunger roared in his gaze…and, for a flicker, there was shame.
He was still in there...underneath the drug and the terror. Broken pieces of the man who came for me…who loved me…who pushed me away to save, not himself…but me. “Gabriel, lower your wing,” rage slipped through my words.
Rage for a woman that used a man.
Rage for a race that allowed this to happen.
Rage for my father, for all the times he could’ve called to arms and stopped the rule of a barbarian. “Now.”
Feathers skimmed my chest, and then my stomach, before they fell away.
I tried to keep the anger trapped inside, but I was bleeding just as Redemption was. “Titus.”
“Please, Lorn, think about this. He’s not right,” Titus growled
I snapped my gaze toward the man I’d brought back from death and stared into his eyes. His fingers eased their hold, his hand slipped from my shoulder and skimmed my spine. Recognition and truth roared between us. “Redemption is right…he’s fucking drugged.”
There was a flinch in my lover’s eyes. The cop in him understood the effects of drugs, but nothing like this. I held his gaze, the words seared on my lips. What if that were you?
I turned to Rival, the same words lingering on the tip of my tongue. And you. Would I not try to ease your pain?
“Drugged or not, he’ll hurt you,” the Hellhound urged and lowered his head to stare into my eyes. “He’ll tear you apart and not even know he’s doing it. That isn’t Redemption. That isn’t anywhere near Redemption.” Rival lifted his head to Gabriel. “Tell her.”
Sickening guttural grunts filled the air until Rival growled once more. “Tell her…”
“We think Redemption is…” Gabriel started…and then stopped.
“We think he’s suicidal,” Titus growled. I jerked my gaze toward him. “Things he said, the way he pulled away from the rest of us. We think he knew this was going to happen, or maybe something similar, and he knew for him there was no getting out.”
The words were a punch to my gut. The tips of my hair lashed my face as I whispered. “No. No, that’s not him. He wouldn’t…”
But in my mind, I replayed the moment he walked into the throne room and stood before the Unseelie Queen. He knew what waited for him, and he came anyway. Maybe there was part of him that was ready to give up fighting, but it wouldn’t be for any Queen. It’d be for someone he loved, someone he thought he owed. Someone he protected once before…someone he thought he’d failed. “It doesn’t matter. None of it.”
I took a step closer, catching the flinch in his eyes as his breathing slowed. His thrusts eased, but still his cock was rock hard. He whimpered as I took a step. Eyes widened in panic as he shook his head.
Blood slipped from the cracks of his lips as they parted. The air was a hiss, just a broken, savage hiss. “Go away.”
“It’s me…Redemption, it’s me, it’s Lorn,” I slowly lifted my hand, fingers trembling in the air.
Until he jerked his body forward, eyes blazing with rage and terror. “Get the fuck away from me!”
I flinched as his screams rebounded against the darkened room and stumbled. Something clinked across the floor. The torchlight followed, finding the tiny flare of metal on the stony surface.
A key.
Small…shiny. I dropped to my knees and grasped the thing from the ground. Not a door key…I lifted my gaze, but a perfect size for the shackles around his wrists.
I gripped the end and lunged, hands shaking, rising upwards.
“Lorn, no!” Gabriel took flight, hitting me mid stride, one hand clasped around the key in mine, and the other arm wound around my waist.
Redemption snarled and growled, the sound and the movement setting him off like an animal.
“Rival is right. He’ll tear you apart. Three against one might be enough in any other circumstances. But think about it, Lorn. We don’t know what she’s given him. We can’t control what he’ll do.”
I shook my head, thrashing to get out of his hold. “It doesn’t matter.”
Still, the Archangel never weakened. “If you don’t care about yourself, then care about us. How do you think that’s going to feel, us fighting him, knowing that if he gets to you, he’s going to…he’s going to…”
Hurt me.
Use me.
Find the relief his body so desperately needs.
“And if that’s not enough to stop you, then think of him. How do you think he’s going to feel when the drug eventually wears off and he sees the damage he’s done? What do you think that will do to a man who’s said he loves you?”
My arms went slack, heart thundering. Boom…boom…boom…like nails in a coffin. “I have to help him. Please, I have to do something.”
“Jesus,” Rival turned away.
“Then leave him chained…for now,” Titus answered. “Help him get the drug out of his system, and if he can control himself, then we make the call. But we make the call together.”
Together. I glanced from Titus to Rival as he turned back to step half into the light. Together. He glanced at Redemption and then at me once more and answered. “Together.”
Gabriel’s gripped eased over mine. “Together,” the Archangel murmured. “Just like we’ve done before.”
His long pale hair skimmed my shoulders as he lowered his head. Feathers skimmed across my hip and then my waist as he buried his head into the crook of my neck. “Because if he hurts you, if he even makes you whimper…I’ll kill the fucking sonofabitch myself.”
I flinched at the promise and lifted my head. Where had the happy, playful Archangel gone? He was changed…we were all changed.
And if we survived this, we’d change again.
He withdrew his wings from around me and then stepped away. I gripped the key and swallowed. My gaze drifted higher, to the outstretched man I loved.
Redemption’s eyes widened, fear closing in as I took a step closer. “Don’t…Lorn, please.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured, and slipped the key into my pocket. He jerked against the chains. “Look at me,” I lifted my hand toward him. “That’s it, just keep looking at me.”
A sound slipped from his lips. He was a brittle thing, too fragile, so small in the body of a man so large. I stepped to his side, curled my fingers, and reached for his cheek.
He jerked from my touch, eyes gravitating toward the others. He was terrified, but not of me…of himself.
“They’re not going to let anything happen to me,” I skimmed the stubble of his cheek. “They’re going to help me take care of you
.”
A nerve jumped near the corner of his eye.
“Ana-miann,” he croaked. “Can’t stop.”
“It’s okay,” I let my fingers skim his jaw, touch his chest.
He closed his eyes as his body trembled. I was pulled out of this room and into the memory of us on the side of the road not so long ago. The feel of his lips burned into my brain.
A hiss escaped as I circled the tight nub of his nipple. His hips thrust, pushing against me.
“Here, let me hold the light,” Titus took a step closer, unable to look at my hand on Redemption’s body.
His fingers skimmed the back of my hand, just a gentle touch before he took the torch and stepped backwards. All three of them watched. All three of them understood.
This wasn’t just for me, or Redemption. This was a way for us to get out of here alive.
“She did this to you?” I whispered and lifted my hand to the thick warmth of his cock.
He whimpered, body hard and ready as he answered. “Yes.”
I eased my grip along his shaft, pushing all the way to the base. A moan ripped free, glorious and raw and savage.
We were all beasts here in the dark.
Every single one of us.
I slipped my hand between his thighs and cupped his balls, before gripping his thickness once more and sliding all the way to the head. There was a whimper that morphed into a growl. One more pump of my hand, and his body jerked and shuddered, spilling warmth against my palm.
He wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot.
This was the first battle of a long and bloody war.
“I…I…love you,” dark Unseelie eyes bored into mine, and in them I found the truth. “Mine,” he growled and those stony Unseelie eyes pinned me where I stood.
“You weren’t going to leave me, were you?” I murmured. Slick skin rode that bulging vein as I slowly pumped, flattening my palm over the perfect smooth skin at the tip. “You weren’t going anywhere.”
“Where you go,” he croaked, “so do I.”
Even through Hell. A moan ripped from his chest as the wave rose inside him again. His hips pumped, arms outstretched, until he was strung tight. I hated my body. Hated how the warmth spread between my thighs. Hated how I wanted his eyes open…locked with mine.
I used my hand, sliding and gripping, waiting for him to buck and squirm before he stilled. Over and over we battled the demon, and over and over we won, until that animal longing passed.
The searing stench of burning flesh made me gag. I swallowed the taste of acid in my mouth and lifted my gaze to the bloody furrows in his wrists. The cuts were deeper, leaving the red to run. Even as I helped him, I couldn’t save him, not all of him.
I turned my head and wiped my hand against my thigh. “I want to get him down.”
“Not a good idea,” Rival shook his head.
“I agree with Rival,” Titus added. “It’s not a good idea. But I think you should.” The Hellhound jerked his head toward Titus as he finished. “No, let me rephrase that…I think you need to.”
“So do I,” Gabriel took a step toward us, peering into Redemption’s eyes. “The drug doesn’t have a hold on him. Not like it did before.”
“Don’t,” Redemption’s hoarse growl punctured the room. “You need to get out of here.”
“Not without you, I won’t,” I answered, and delved into my pocket.
Unseelie eyes flared with desperation and rage. “You don’t get it, do you? Even after everything this place has shown you, you still refuse to believe? She’s never going to let me go, Lorn…and even if she did, I couldn’t go back home. Not anymore.”
Something cold slithered in my belly. “What do you mean?”
“There was only one way for me to get to you. The portals were locked down, and there was no way I could get through the Seelie gate, even if Titus gave every drop of his precious blood.”
I glanced at the others, stopping on Titus before I turned to Redemption once more.
“I had to invoke the power of my realm, and pray my bond to this place was strong enough to consume my spirit.
There was a hiss of a breath. I didn’t know where it came from. But the others looked to me. “What do you mean, consume your spirit?”
He wouldn’t answer, only dropped his gaze to the floor.
And the warnings of the others came back to me, like a fist in my gut. “What did you do, Redemption?”
He flinched at the ice in my tone.
“What. Did. You. Do?”
“What needed to be done to save you,” he jerked his gaze high. “And I’d do it a thousand times again. There is no saving me, Lorn, not anymore.”
But there was…there was always a way to save him. Pain flared through the middle of my chest. I was sure I felt the crack of my heart…as it shattered into two.
I couldn’t answer, couldn’t move, could only stare at the man I’d loved forever, and for the first time I realized he was right.
I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t piece together his body and his soul. I could only love him here and now. I looked to the others behind me…it was all I’d ever done. Give while we can, take, as well.
Redemption moaned and the shackles clinked. He rocked forward as another wave of desire rose.
“Wait,” Rival snapped as he strode forward. He reached over his head, grasped his shirt, and dragged it free. “If you do this, then we do it together. God knows you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
“No,” Redemption whimpered.
But the others weren’t listening…they’d made up their minds.
The metal clasp tangled as Titus reached for his belt. Gabriel followed, grabbing his shirt and lifting it free of his body and his wings. Bare skin shone in the glow of the torch from all of them. Archangel, Hellhound…and the descendant of all the races, Titus.
He yanked his shirt free and dropped his trousers, before shoving socks and boots free with one hand while he gripped the torch in the other.
The others shed their clothes as the yellow torch light bounced and flared against the stone. I turned back to him, to the Unseelie I loved. as Titus moved around the room behind me.
There was a flare of light, another torch, embedded in the wall beside the bed. My stomach tightened, knowing the reason why.
She’d want to watch it all while she was down here.
She wouldn’t want to miss one brutal, sickening thing.
A shudder raced down my spine as Boroch’s whimpers filled my head as he crawled from the Queen’s bedroom to the consort’s bed. All those men…all those infernal, endless nights at the hands of her pleasure.
How many did she bring down here?
Or was this a place kept just for those who were special?
And as I lifted my gaze to Redemption, I knew the truth.
This place was for him…only for him.
She’s planned this…oh, how she fucking planned this for years.
Titus lit one torch, and then another. I gripped the key and turned toward the bed. There was only one way to help him now. Give my body to him. Excitement mingled with fear as Rival stepped closer, the orange light shimmering against his skin.
He lifted his hand, cupped my chin and turned my gaze toward him. The kiss was soft, and slow. His body brushed mine, tongue delved into my mouth before it was gone again.
A bestial snarl came from Redemption, a warning…a promise…
Mine.
Still the Hellhound never wavered. If he heard the warning in the Unseelie’s tone, he didn’t care. His hand skimmed my arm and then cupped my breast. The kiss was broken, for him to ease away and watch.
They all liked to watch, whether it was one on one…or all of us together.
I felt their intense excitement at every twitch in my body and every shudder. They knew the places to touch and kiss—Rival’s lips curled into a smile as he lowered himself to his knees.
His hand clenched tighter around my breast, his fi
ngers found my nipple, and I shuddered. He dropped his other hand to the inside of my knee and slid higher. Energy coursed from his fingers to between my thighs.
His hand slid higher, fingers brushing the juncture of my thighs, before his hand fell from my breast, finding the button of my jeans.
“I’m going to kill you, Hellhound,” Redemption growled and yanked against the chains.
“Fight or fuck, Lorn,” Rival murmured. “We can do it right here. I can take some of the danger out of him before he gets to you, and right about now, I think he’s ready to take it out of me.”
They’d beat each other senseless…all three of them. They’d tear each other apart, just to save me.
Fight or fuck?
Energy rippled through Redemption’s body…he was so goddamn powerful. He’d waited forever, but not for sex—I wasn’t that naive.
No, for something bigger.
Something more powerful.
Something addictive.
“No,” I murmured, and grasped the bottom of my shirt and lifted. Cloth slid against my face before I dropped it to the floor. “No fighting.
I reached around and unhooked my bra as Rival eased the zipper low on my jeans. His fingers delved inside my panties, finding the top of my slit. “Are you ready for this?”
White feathers reached into my view as Gabriel stretched his wings and moved to the other side of the bed. “Are you sure about this, Lorn? Once he starts, I doubt even all three of us could make him stop.”
His blue eyes weren’t bright and clear anymore. He wasn’t a bright summer’s day…he was a bottomless sea. It was fear…fear that made them tremble, fear that made the male in them rush to the surface.
Fight or fuck.
That was all it came down to with them. They trusted no one.
Except me.
Rival’s finger slid lower, finding me warm and slick. My voice was a croak as I moved, trapping the Hellhound’s hand in place. I was going to cum right now…but I needed it.
I’d need all my body could give me and more. “I trust him.”
Redemption’s answer was to lunge until the chains at his wrists snapped taut.
I left Rival’s hand to slide my thumbs inside my jeans and panties. One shove and Rival’s hand was freed, his thumb circling my clit, fingers deep inside. “I trust all of you.”