He grinned. “I didn’t tell Flint to summon you yet. How did you know I needed you here with me?”
“Because I needed you.” She replied. “Turn around, Drake.”
He followed her orders, though she had a feeling it was less because she’d demanded and more because he was curious. He leaned against the fireplace and bent his leg to place his foot on the wall. Arms crossed over his chest, he looked every inch the king of this fortress.
Now was the time to prove herself. She could distract him with her body and she was confident enough to do so. How many men had she stripped for just to drink them dry? Not once had she been concerned whether or not they would find her attractive.
This man, though? This one she wanted to lose his mind when he saw her naked and it wasn’t fair that she was so nervous just to be standing in front of him.
She lifted her hands. Her fingers might shake a little, but that movement would disappear the moment she touched her shoulders. Her fingers skated across the fabric of the robe. All it took was a simple push on the neck of the robe for it to sag, then slid over her shoulders, down her arms, and to the floor.
His gaze heated. She could feel his eyes like a physical touch as he swept them from the bottom of her feet to the top of her head. He shifted, adjusting his stance. “What are you doing?” he asked.
She didn’t know. She really didn’t have any plan past this point because he was supposed to jump her.
Lilith stepped forward. “I want you, Drake. I’m tired of waiting. I know this dance we’ve done between the two of us probably has a few more steps to go, but I don’t want to dance anymore.” She stopped right in front of him. “Touch me.”
All the air in his lungs burst out in a great gust that blew cool air across her skin. Her nipples pebbled and gooseflesh danced down her arms. He watched her body’s reaction with eyes so hot she could feel his gaze like a sunburn.
“Oh Lilith.” He reached a hand up like he would palm her breast, only to drop it. “If only we had time. Later. Tonight, we’ll take this conversation up again.”
And then he walked by her. Like she wasn’t standing naked in front of him, begging him to take her.
She was crushed. Horrified. Embarrassed.
Wide eyed, she stared into the fireplace and remained locked in place. She’d never been turned down by a single person, not since turning into a vampire. She didn’t even remember what this moment felt like.
Rejection.
He didn’t find her as attractive as she thought he had. That could be the only reason for him to walk away from her when she offered him everything she had. Everything she was.
Her eyes stung with tears and she had to stop breathing so she didn’t let out a choked sound that might be a sob. She didn’t know. Lilith hadn’t cried in centuries.
A warm hand came down on her shoulder. “We both have a part in the games tonight. I need you to be every inch the vampiress you are.”
She only half heard the words. Was that supposed to make her feel better? She was just a toy to him. But he only wanted to play with her when he wanted to play, and that didn’t seem fair.
“Lift your foot, Lilith.”
What?
She lifted her foot as he asked. Cool silk pooled at her feet, touching her skin like the caress of the lover she didn’t get. Shocked, she looked down to see blood red fabric on the ground.
“Now the other.”
She did as she was told. Drake knelt behind her, then pulled the gown up her body. The silk was like a second skin, as though the dress had been made according to her exact measurements.
Strapless and simply made, the corseted top ended in points just above her breasts. The skirt was tight around her hips and thighs, then spread out at her knees. It would allow her to walk a little easier, but also still moved like a second skin.
“What are you doing?” she asked, touching a hand to the silk. “What is this?”
“I told you, we have our parts tonight.” He set to work tying all the strings at the back. “Tell me if it’s too tight.”
“I don’t have to breathe, remember?” She placed a hand against her stomach and stilled her lungs. “Tie it as tight as you want. Whatever will make the best impression.”
He heaved on the strings and tightened it almost to the point of pain. Exactly how she liked it.
While he set to work, her mind whirled. Why was he doing this? What part did she have in this entire thing? She couldn’t wear a dress like this. She was a servant, and all the faerie nobles he’d invited had already seen she was nothing more than a servant.
He tugged hard and she let out an inaudible gasp. “Drake, why are you doing this?”
“What do you mean?”
“The nobles aren’t going to be impressed if you brought a servant to dinner.” She hissed out the last of her breath, then forcefully sucked in air so she could speak. “This won’t make the impression you seem to think it will.”
“My dear, I don’t care what they think of your status or where you came from.” He tied the strings at her back in a little bow, then tapped her shoulder for her to turn around. “All they need to know is that I have a powerful vampiress at my side.”
She turned and his gaze heated once more. He stared down at the plush tops of her breasts like he wanted to sink his own teeth into them. How many times had a man looked at her like that? Thousands of times. But it had never meant as much as it did now.
Lilith reached up and skated her fingers over her skin, throwing caution to the wind and trying one last time to distract him. “Are you sure we don’t have a few moments? We could be late.”
Drake reached into his pocket and drew out a necklace. It was a single ruby, like a drop of blood.
He tied it around her neck while saying, “No, my bloodthirsty vampiress. This isn’t an evening to be late to.”
The ruby settled hot and hard against her chest like an ember from the fire. In that moment, she knew she’d lost.
Drake took her hand and tugged her from the room. Lilith sent a silent apology to Flint, and hoped like hell she had a better plan than just distraction.
Now, she had to make sure he didn’t kill anyone.
21
“Let nothing distract you from the plan,” the elemental growled in his mind.
For once, they were in agreement. Though turning down Lilith’s offer had been one of the toughest decisions he’d ever made in his life. When she dropped that robe and revealed the smooth planes of her body beneath... He’d nearly broken.
Fuck the plan. Fuck anything that stood between his tongue and the valley between her breasts. She deserved someone who could worship every part of her body, and he intended to do just that.
Once tonight was over, he would do everything he could to pleasure her for hours. But only once he could focus on something other than the person trying to have him killed. In all his years, this wasn’t the first time someone wanted to see him dead. But he’d learned a long time ago that suffering an assassin to remain in his midst only caused more problems than it was worth.
He held her hand carefully in his, so he didn’t crush it with all the energy rocking through his body. Tonight he would finally destroy the person who had betrayed him for centuries. He would put on a show no one could ever be disappointed with and then he would bring her back to his room and worship the body she’d put on display for him.
Faerie realms, she was a distraction.
“Focus your mind,” the elemental hissed. “We don’t have time for thoughts like these. The game is afoot.”
The creature was right. He only had a limited time to perfect this dinner. So he dragged Lilith through the halls, all the way to the room where she’d first served him.
The memory was laughable now that he knew her. She was no more a servant than he was. Lilith was made to sit at the right hand of the throne with all that power bubbling inside her. And now, she’d make a statement for him unlike any other.
He paused in front of the door and turned her to face him. “Do you have enough power left inside you to take your bat form as you did in the Great Hall?”
She blinked up at him with wide eyes. “Yes, I do. But I’m not-”
“Good,” he interrupted. “When the doors open, I want you to follow me to the head of the dinner table. Once there, you may resume this form.”
She frowned. “You can’t just order me around. It takes a lot of energy to perform that magic, and I’d need more blood much sooner.”
He lifted his hand for silence. “Then you’ll have as much blood as you want tonight. I need you to make an impression on all the nobles in that room, Lilith. They need to see you aren’t just a servant, but a powerful ally.”
He could see the thoughts floating through her mind. She didn’t like him telling her what to do, unsurprisingly. Lilith wasn’t a woman who took orders with ease.
Perhaps he’d been a little too short.
The elemental stirred to life once more. “Women don’t like being used as toys. Remind her how important she is. Apologize, you dolt.”
Drake opened his mouth. “I’m sorry. That order came out a little curt, and not how I meant it. Will you please help me intimidate all within that room by showing them you are not just a servant? Please.”
Her frown deepened if that was possible. But she nodded. “All right.”
It wasn’t the thankful response he wanted, but it would have to do. He’d take an “all right” knowing that she wouldn’t break her word. She’d make the room her own and all the other faeries in the court would bend a knee seeing he was not just powerful on his own. Now he had one of the most deadly magical creatures on his side as well.
Let them quake in fear.
Drake threw open the doors and heard the snap of magic as she turned into a swarm of bats that trailed him through the room.
He relished the expressions of every faerie noble who sat at the table. Their eyes widened in surprise, some in fear. The whispers started, most wondering what trick he had up his sleeve because vampires couldn’t do that. It wasn’t possible.
No vampire had such power since the original vampires of old, and none of the fire faeries had been to the human realm in a very long time. Vampires were a dying breed. They had seen that long before he’d built this realm to hide them from human eyes.
Now, they were seeing a vampire in her genuine power. How many people had this opportunity to see such a sight?
And now they all knew he also had a vampire under his thumb. Or, well, that’s what they thought. The truth was she had him under her thumb, so well and truly he couldn’t think of anything else unless the elemental guided him.
He just needed to make sure he was completing all the steps he needed to take. He must prepare for the horrors he would rain down upon the human realm.
Then he could focus on her.
He sat down in his chair and tried not to stare in equal awe as the rest of them when she turned back into herself. She stood beside him, a woman bathed in crimson, beautiful and powerful and wondrous.
Yes, he could love this woman.
“Not now,” the elemental hissed. “First, we must destroy those who threaten us.”
Drake leaned forward in his chair, propped his elbows on the table, and surveyed the faeries who stared back at him. They had always been there. Hand chosen by their king to lead when no others would have sufficed. They were the best of all the faeries.
And one of them was a traitor.
“Welcome home,” he started.
A few of the faeries kept their eyes on Lilith. None of them knew why they were meeting with him here, and they had their suspicions. With a vampiress in their midst, one who was no longer tethered by the chains of servitude, could only mean there was trouble afoot. And they knew what trouble meant when Drake was involved.
He watched them with calculating eyes, waiting for them to realize this wasn’t just a meeting of his most trusted faeries.
Drake licked his lips. “It has come to my attention that a few of you consider me to be... lacking in leadership.”
Three of the faeries widened their eyes and began to shake. They remained silent.
One faerie, the one who had jested about Lilith the first time he saw her, opened his rotund mouth. “My king, I don’t believe any of us would be so foolish as to consider your leadership anything other than just or fair.”
“Is that so?” He eyed the others. “I think you’re wrong. I think one of you has been speaking with another faerie court. Plotting some nefarious deed to see me dethroned and out of the way for another to take my place.”
Two more faeries shook.
The same loudmouthed fool opened his maw once more. “My lord, if I may speak on behalf of my fellow nobles. We have prospered more under your hand than any others in the history of the Autumn Court. We do not have any quarrels with you.”
Drake sighed. If this fool would just shut his damned mouth, then maybe they could get somewhere.
The faerie kept speaking. “And furthermore-”
Drake pinched the bridge of his nose, breathed slowly, and then spoke over the other faerie as though he wasn’t even in the room. “I think you all know why I’ve called you here. One of you might have even guessed who I am about to reprimand. However, this is a warning to you all.”
Lilith stiffened beside him. He felt some level of remorse knowing that she would have to witness this before they could fully enjoy each other’s company. She might not understand what he was about to do, or why he was doing it. And that was something he’d have to make up for tonight. And he would. Ten times over he would ensure she never thought ill of him for what the elemental bid him do.
“Solana,” he murmured. The word, though softly said, carried through the room like the grim omen it was.
She was one of his favorite advisors. Her hair shone like the sun, blonde and glistening like gold. Her skin was a burnished copper and glimmered in the light. She was gorgeous and yet, not enough for him to ever be tempted by her sight. Perhaps that was why she thought it necessary to betray him.
“Your Majesty?” she asked. She tried very hard to keep her voice steady, but he could hear the slight warble in the tones.
She knew he’d already found her out.
She knew what he was about to do, because she had been the one to teach him.
“You have been speaking with a banshee of the Air Court. From my understanding, your plan is to kill me.”
“No!” She leapt from her seat and slammed her hands onto the table. “I am loyal. I’ve always been loyal to you, and to even suggest such a thing is to throw all my hard work back in my face.”
He lifted his hand and flames burst to life on the table. An image of her meeting with another faerie shimmered in the fire. “Was this not you then? Did some shapeshifter steal your face while I wasn’t looking?”
Solana caught her breath. “My lord, I... I...”
She had nothing to say, and he knew there wasn’t a way for her to explain what she’d done. He’d tried to think of any possibility himself, justifying her actions as anything but betrayal. The elemental had argued with him for hours upon hours. They both had come to the same conclusion.
She wanted him dead. And she would do anything to ensure it happened.
He could hear Lilith’s ragged breath beside him, sawing in and out. She was trying so hard to remain stoic, but he knew this would only become worse.
Solana pointed at the vampiress with a snarl. “Is she to take my life then? Is that why you brought her?”
Before Lilith could speak, Drake snarled, “She feasts on no one but me. Your tainted blood is not worthy to be fed to the greatest of all vampires. How dare you even suggest such a foul thing?”
Lilith relaxed for only a moment before she stiffened again. Solana’s hands burned with power and fire. She didn’t speak, only threw twin balls of flame at Lilith so quickly no one could react. No one could even think.
The vampiress moved out of the way with blinding speed. One moment she was beside Drake, the next, she stood on the other side of the room beside Flint. His head of staff shielded her with a wall of fire that would absorb any other attack Solana threw their way.
“Enough!” Drake leapt from his seat and all the flames jumped to his body. For a moment, the entire room went dark. Then, he was the only light that glowed.
His body was no longer solid at all. Instead, he was fire itself. A pillar of flame and heat, walking through the room toward Solana, who stumbled away from him. She knocked over her chair and tried to throw another ball of flame at him. But he absorbed her magic, her power, her heat. All of it became part of who he was. The pillar of death she’d seen end so many people before.
Drake opened his mouth and the sound that came out wasn’t him at all. It was the elemental.
“I will not be kind,” he snarled. “I will not bend to your pleading or your will.”
“I’m begging you, Drake. I know you’re in there, please don’t do this.”
He caught her by the throat and drew her close to his face. “I will break you. Shatter your soul and listen to your screams for all eternity.”
The glow of her body dimmed as he drew it into himself. Closer and closer until there was nothing left at all inside her. He held the husk of her body, dim and quiet.
The elemental receded and Drake stared at her lifeless corpse with boredom. “Such a waste. She was a good noble in her time.”
He tossed the empty shell of her form aside, then wiped his hands on his pants. “There. It is done. Who has a report for me?”
Every faerie noble remained silent, staring at him with shock and fear. Not a single one of them had the where-with-all to realize he was giving them a chance to make up for her mistake. One of them should open their mouth and answer his damn question.
He was shaking just like the rest of them. Solana had been a dear friend and confidante for many of his years. Killing her gave him no pleasure.
King of the Flame Page 15