Bulletproof Damsel

by Amelia Hutchins

  Someone pounded on the door, and he growled an inhuman noise, turning as his head cocked to the side, listening. I shivered, watching him as he turned back, gazing at my core that he still stroked. He leaned over, clamping his mouth around a nipple, and I moaned as he laughed against the heated peak. He worked his cock, rubbing it against my core.

  I closed my eyes against the multitude of sensations he was creating. He started to move forward, stretching my body as I whimpered, but the pounding at the door intensified until he pulled back, grinding his teeth as he watched my body trying to accommodate his.

  “Do not move, woman,” he ordered, standing without warning.

  I grabbed the throw blanket from the back of the couch, staring at him as he adjusted his cock in his suit pants. He smiled down at me as I realized what I’d been about to do. Blinking, I watched him silently moving to the door, opening it to reveal Cole, who entered without invitation.

  “Are you intending to keep the alphas waiting? That’s just bad manners, and so unlike you, brother,” Cole stated, sitting on the couch beside me, placing his hand on my naked thigh.

  He smiled, lowering his pretty eyes to the panties that sat by my feet, and then slowly slid them to the blanket I held against my body like armor.

  “I have an hour before I’m expected at the bar, asshole. Did you actually need something?” Rhys asked, licking his lips slowly, which caused my cheeks to heat.

  “There was an attack today, which you would know if you weren’t trying to get balls-deep into Remi. The factory was broken into, and five workers were injured severely. Don’t worry, bro. I sent a team to handle it. Care to share her?” Cole asked, lifting me onto his lap. Staring at Rhys, I grasped on to the blanket. “Stop squirming, Remi. I’d hate to hurt you,” he growled, pulling my legs apart as he removed the blanket.

  Cole’s fingers held the inside of my thighs, forcing my legs apart. I watched Rhys’s eyes dip to my core, heating with need as they slid over the arousal he’d created. He didn’t move, didn’t show any emotion as I was held open for him. Cole’s lips brushed against my throat, holding Rhys’s stare before he released his hold, letting my legs rest on his before his fingers brushed against my sex.

  “Can I destroy you, Remington? Let me fuck your tight cunt while Rhys watches me wrecking you. I want to see him fight that monster within him, knowing you are coming for me. I bet he’d uncage the demon for you.” Cole’s hands moved, slowly parting my sex as tears filled my eyes. My heart pounded against my ribs while Rhys just stared, and worse, he was turned on by watching Cole play with me.

  “Let me go, now,” I growled, standing up the moment he released me.

  I didn’t wait for either one to speak or apologize. I threw open the door and started out of it, only to hear crashing sounds behind me. I came face to face with two knights wearing actual armor. One pulled his cloak off, rushing forward to offer it.

  “Ma’am,” he whispered, taking in the tears rolling from my eyes. “Please take it before you incite a riot with your beauty.”

  I accepted the cloak, covering my body as the sound of glass shattering filled the hallway. Grunts and groans followed it, and then the entire wall shook as something slammed against it. I didn’t wait to figure out what was happening or if they were fighting. I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

  Rushing up the stairs, I entered my bedroom, rushing into the shower. Turning on the water, I slid beneath the spray, dropping the cloak onto the shower floor. Angry tears burned my eyes as I reached for the soap, washing my body until it was red and sore. I fought to remove both men’s touches.

  The door opened, and I spun around, staring at Rhys, who peered down at the soaked cloak in the shower. His eyes held worry, and yet he didn’t look apologetic. He looked pissed off at me.

  “I can’t stop him from touching you. You can, though. If I do it, he’ll only want to hurt you more to get to me.”

  “Get out,” I whispered, turning around to dismiss him.

  “I’ll have food ordered at the bar for you. Get dressed and be downstairs in twenty minutes. If you’re not ready, I’ll take you to the bar naked, Remi. Don’t make me into the bad guy. If I had reacted, he’d only worsen in his need for revenge. Cole has never forgiven me for what he saw as a trespass against him, even though the woman he loved was nothing but a murderous Silversmith whore. He couldn’t see her for the monster she was, and he was too young at the time to see the bigger picture unfolding. I do not intend to share you, but I also won’t give him what he wants, which is to make him think you’re a weakness for me. You’re not, and to pretend otherwise would only paint a target on your back. You have sixteen minutes now. I suggest you climb out of there and get over whatever it is that is bothering you.”

  “I was just spread apart and violated, and you did nothing!”

  “I couldn’t react.”

  “I don’t belong here,” I groaned, exiting the shower to grab a towel, shouldering past him.

  I walked to my backpack, pulling out a skirt and blouse. I dressed quickly, feeling his burning stare on my spine. I ran a brush through my hair, slipping a band around it, creating a messy bun, then slid my feet into sandals.

  “Ready, asshole.”

  I left him standing in the room as I walked down the stairs to where Cole stood with a smug smile on his lips. He watched me approaching him silently, opening his mouth to speak, but my hand cracked across his cheek, forcing his head to snap to the side with a comforting noise. Slowly, his eyes settled back on me with heat burning within them.

  “Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again,” I hissed. Cole looked at Rhys before he turned back toward me, smiling as if he found me intriguing. “If I want to fuck you, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, don’t touch me, Cole Van Helsing. I’m not yours or Rhys’s fucking plaything. Don’t use me to get revenge for something that happened before I was even born. That isn’t fair to me, and I sure as shit have never wronged you. Don’t wrong me.”

  I took in the pain that entered his eyes and watched it vanish before I could investigate it further. His cocky grin slipped back into place, and he stepped closer, running his finger over my cheek.

  “Careful, Silversmith,” Cole said huskily, as if hurting him had turned him on. “I consider that foreplay, and after smelling your arousal, I’m officially fucking interested in you. You smell fucking addictive, and I like addictive things. Especially when they come in such a pretty package,” he chuckled. Pulling me against him, he lowered his forehead to rest against mine. “I’m going to have you one way or another, Sunshine. Do hurry up and let Rhys down gently, yeah?”

  “Go to hell,” I whispered, pushing Cole away from me, even though he didn’t budge.

  “Enough! We’ll be late,” Rhys said from beside me. I followed the knights out of the front door, listening as Rhys grabbed Cole’s arm. “Take the hint, asshole. She isn’t interested. After your little fucking stunt, we’ll have to pick another brother to seduce her, so that we can finish this. Stop working against me and start working with me if you want revenge against the Silversmiths.”

  I didn’t hear what else was said as I crawled into the limo, finding Nyx waiting for me. She smiled, holding out strawberries and a flute of champagne.

  “It’s the good stuff, taste it!” she smiled, dropping it in the bucket as she took in the anger burning in my eyes.

  “We have to get out of here, Nyx,” I whispered, barely loud enough that it was audible to my own ears.

  “Fucking try it, Silversmith,” Acyn chuckled, peering around Nyx, where she sat on his lap, gulping down champagne. “You gave Rhys your silver. He owns you now. Welcome to the world of immortals, where every good deed gets you fucked harder than the last one.” His nose lifted, and his pierced eyebrow brushed against his hairline. “You already get fucked hard, sweetheart?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on Cole, who climbed into the car, sporting a black eye, his lip freshly cut open. Rhys sat beside me, pe
ering over at Acyn, who grimaced at the black eye Rhys now wore too. “Bloody hell,” he growled. “Choose a cock, sweetheart, and ride it already. I can’t endure another pussy war like the last one.”

  “I choose neither,” I snorted as the door shut, and we started down the driveway.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The bar was empty, other than the few men who sat around a large table set in the center of what I assumed was the dancefloor, considering the lights around the area. Rhys walked me to a chair, pulling it out as he waited for me to sit, pushing me closer to the table before sitting beside me at the head of it.

  Men, and I use that term loosely, turned to take in my features. Their stares burned my flesh with the intensity of the way they studied me. Only a few females had joined, and they looked me over with ridicule and boredom, as if I belonged on the bottom of their stiletto heels instead of at the table with them.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to House Van Helsing sanctuary.” Rhys placed a card on the table, and one by one, the creatures around it reached for it to sign. They passed the card around, silently handing it back to Rhys with everyone’s signature.

  “Really, Van Helsing? What game are you playing? This… child is not a Silversmith. Her coloring is all wrong, and she is rather… mundane. I’ve seen prettier creatures in the back of a whorehouse.” I turned, studying the cold persona of the woman that spoke. Violet eyes narrowed on me as she smiled, tilting her head. “You couldn’t even pass her off to newborns as a Silversmith.”

  “I agree. She lacks, well, everything that would mark her house,” another woman stated, her eyes smiling as they took in the frown playing on my face.

  “If you wanted me here to fuck me, Rhys, I assure you, you didn’t need the others. I rather enjoy your cock enough to come willingly,” a woman stated, heels clicking over the floor as she reached the table. Placing her blood-red nails on his shoulder, she leaned over, kissing his cheek. “I have missed you while I’ve been away, Love.”

  “Sit down, Eloisa. I didn’t call you here to fuck,” Rhys stated, his eyes turning to lock with mine. “I assure you, Remington is indeed a Silversmith, and full-blooded at that.”

  “That’s impossible, darling. She doesn’t even have the telltale markings of a Silversmith. Her hair, while gaudy, is naturally red. Her eyes are also not hidden beneath contacts. Witch, maybe. Silversmith, not a chance in Hades’ whorehouse. And I should know, I’ve visited it often enough over the centuries.” Eloisa grabbed my face, turning my cheek, and I yanked back, glaring up at her as she narrowed her eyes. “She looks like Roslyn, or at least her eyes do,” she said breathlessly, gripping my chin until it ached.

  “Indeed, she does,” Rhys agreed. “She is her niece, after all.”

  “That’s impossible, and you know it. We helped you murder the Silversmiths, Van Helsing. All of us jeopardized everything to help you find justice for your mother and your brothers’ wives and children. There are no full-blooded Silversmiths left alive.”

  My stomach clenched as Cole snorted, and Acyn joined him, turning cold eyes on me. Acyn lifted his hands and folded them on the table, staring at me as he spoke. “I’m aware of what you all sacrificed and placed on the line after the Silversmiths murdered my mother, and hunted down my children like animals, butchering my wife and leaving her womb outside her body with my dead, unborn son rotting inside. This girl is a full-blooded Silversmith, and that’s a fucking problem for everyone. She’s mortal. That means there’s a full-blooded mother who birthed her into this world running around out there somewhere,” Acyn hissed, holding my gaze.

  Rhys placed the blade I’d made onto the table, and everyone stood, looking at the craftsmanship. “Lucky for us, Remington wasn’t taught much about the war between our bloodlines before she ran away from Elizabeth,” Rhys stated, and everyone turned to look at him before examining me once more. “She made this sword and gifted me her silver.”

  “You accepted it? Was she forced? If she was, it’s invalid. Do you intend to offer her your protection? Elizabeth was the best Silversmith they ever produced, born of a pure lineage. Her children were always stronger than the others, and you think to claim this girl in the ancient ways of their line? You’ve gone mad, Van Helsing.”

  “How so, Griselda? I claimed the strongest Silversmith I have ever encountered. By claiming Remington, I have ensured that she can never raise silver against me or my house. Look at her work and tell me that it isn’t better than anything Elizabeth or Roslyn ever created in their lifetime. But even better than that, I was shown exactly how a Silversmith creates their silver. In fact, my brothers and my knights also watched her crafting the blade before you.”

  “And what did you learn?” Griselda asked, her eyes lowering to hold mine.

  “That the Silversmiths probably sacrificed their staff and their own children to escape the fire, which I assure you, they could have lived through easily. Remington worked for fourteen hours in a room where the heat was five hundred degrees, and yet the room burned hotter due to the forge where she worked. It reached five hundred and ninety degrees, and her body temperature during that time reached a full seven hundred degrees.”

  Everyone slid their gaze from the blade to me, and I glared at Rhys, who continued. I watched the way every immortal in the room hung on his every word. He was respected by more than just the women who had eye-raped him harder than I had, and that was saying something.

  “Things have started to go awry for houses out of nowhere, and nothing has added up. Not until this little Silversmith walked into a fight between Cole and me, murdering a half-blooded Silversmith, shattering her into slivers of silver. Newborn vampires are being created without a sire. We all know a witch can make day-walkers that appear to be vampires, and the wolves have been attacked during the new moon when they’re at their weakest points.

  “We thought it to be hunters because the bullets weren’t fully silver, just laced, but enough so to still kill them. Half-breeds have been turning up dissected, yet still alive with no memory of who took them, or how they were wounded. Only a few creatures can erase memories so deeply that others cannot pull them from their mind.” Rhys tapped the blade, smirking. “Then I went to her mother’s house, who Remington claimed was missing.”

  My eyes narrowed on Rhys as the tick in his jaw slowly pulsed. “What I found was the glyphs to control an alpha in their younger years pulsing on the wall when Remington, herself, touched the door to her bedroom. The same glyphs appeared on her flesh. Being that we were very young that last time we’d seen the symbols, it took us a while to add it all together,” he explained, and the eyes narrowed on me intently, causing me to fidget beneath their stares.

  “What are you saying, Van Helsing?” Griselda asked carefully.

  “The house held all the signs of a rising son, but in this case, a daughter since we all know the only alphas in the Silversmith lineage are females. Snakes in the bed of the reigning alpha, a mark that means their time is short as another comes to take it by force, and blood beneath them to signify a sacrifice made. We didn’t make it down to the armory, but then none ever do when they try to reach one owned by a Silversmith, as the unknown being protects it. The armory exploded, almost ending Remington’s life in the process, but I protected her. I have given her my vow of protection, and she has given me her silver. In the eyes of the old world, she is my wife.”

  “Excuse me?” I glared, staring at him through narrowed eyes.

  “You did it, you claimed her fully. No Van Helsing has ever claimed a Silversmith in the way of the old world, because it was forbidden to protect their house from ever falling. Why would they leave something so precious unguarded in her most vulnerable time?” One of the alphas asked, his lime-green eyes searching mine as if he could find the answer within me.

  “Remington ran away from Elizabeth at seventeen. She joined E.V.I.E., and I think Elizabeth thought she was safely hidden within their organization. Had Remi remained in their hold, no
ne of us would have looked for her there. She was their weapons master. She used metals along with her silver, which none of us would have noted unless a solid silver weapon was wielded against us. We’d have had to survive to realize what silver had been used. Remington’s silver is powerful, and I’m willing to guess that few have survived it or lived to tell anyone they’d felt the Silversmith silver again.”

  “I’m not your wife, asshole,” I interjected, watching as the tick in his jaw started, but he continued ignoring me. “Is the bar open?” I asked, watching his azure eyes turn toward me for the first time in the last several moments.

  “Remington, I’d advise you to hold your tongue.”

  “I’d advise you to hold your fucking breath, but I don’t think you’d die from suffocation, which would make the entire point moot. Now, is the bar open? Because I am reserving the right to get rip-roaring drunk tonight, and, hopefully by doing so, I’ll forget what you and your brother did to me. Obviously, you don’t need me for your little party. I was just here so you could stroke your male ego at what you found unguarded. I’ll go get drunk, and you get your back patted on such a good job for catching a little mortal Silversmith, and using her naïveté to fuck her over.”

  “You’re not moving from your chair. If you’d like to drink, I can order you something. Do you understand me?” Rhys asked, narrowing his eyes as I smirked.

  “Yes, Daddy, I understand,” I smiled darkly, leaning back while I surveyed the others who watched us with curiosity.

  “Now, where were we?”

  “At the part where I was hiding in E.V.I.E. where I signed a ten-year contract that is only breakable through death,” I stated pointedly, noting he didn’t seem to fear them coming. “That means they’re coming. My family will also come to get me. They’re never going to allow you to keep me. I apparently have a super big mouth, and giveaway shit that I wasn’t even aware was a secret. I also tried to be nice and make you a badass blade, which now you assume makes you my husband. Which, by the way, that’s some medieval bullshit mentality. I mean, I thought handfasting was outdated. But blade trading? Whew, that one outdates the books, I guess. I’ve read hundreds of books, and none included the bitch giving him the blade, but lots of them had the rhetorical cock, aka, sword, entering her vagina and bam!” I slapped the table, causing the immortals to jump in their seats, which was a little soothing to my bruised ego. “Bitch is married to Sir Dicks-A-Lot. But hey, you want my sword? I’ll peg you so fucking hard you feel me fucking your throat, Van Helsing. I’m down to be dirty with you.”