by Lexi C. Foss
“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 I mean, I thought handfasting was outdated.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.”
“Are you finished yet?”
“No. Not even close. I did mention my super big mouth, right?” I asked, watching his eyes sparkling with anger. “I’m not here willingly, Rhys. You expecting me to sit beside you like a good little bitch, well, that’s just unrealistic expectations on your part. I didn’t murder your people. I sure as hell wasn’t around when our families went to war. I wasn’t a part of your twisted as shit backstory, and I don’t want to be either. I’m just a girl who likes to make pretty weapons that kill nasty monsters. Is that too much to ask?”
“Actually, it is, Sweetling. You are responsible for the deaths of my creations,” a scathing voice slithered down my spine. I turned, watching a blonde move toward me with pale-skinned men beside her.
Vampire.
“Laura, I’m surprised you would lower yourself to come tonight, darling,” Cole muttered, glaring at the vampire.
“And miss finding the little bitch that is helping E.V.I.E. hunt down my children? As if. Nikolas, you, of all people, know how attached I am to my children,” she sneered, her fangs extending as he smirked, licking his lips as the queen evil bitch gave him a lusty stare. Her cold ice-blue eyes slid to me, and she slowly moved closer. “You’re the weapon master for the Seattle branch, are you not?”
“I am,” I said carefully, showing no fear as I faked it until I made it, which was out of this encounter alive, or so I hoped. “They do scream so beautifully when the silver shreds their non-beating hearts. If you want your children to live, all they have to do is follow the rules agreed upon by both you and E.V.I.E. If you can’t manage to control your own child, Laura, how the fuck do you manage an entire branch of your house?”
“You’re what, twenty, twenty-one at most? You’re an infant in this world, and I could end you before you blink, little bitch.”
“It would be a fatal flaw to underestimate me right now, Laura. You see, I am very young, but I am highly trained in the call of silver,” I stated, standing to come nose to nose with her as my finger lifted, trailing down her cheek. I felt Rhys rising behind me, standing ready to protect me, unaware that I wouldn’t need it. “At the moment, I can sense the Ben Wa Balls shoved up that pussy of yours that you’re clenching so hard to hold in. There’s also a hint of silver sitting in your ass. I’m willing to bet it has enough within it that when I call, it will come. You won’t, because well, I’m not trying to get you off here, after all. You have piercings in your nipples, your naval, and your clit. I dig it. Did it hurt? I’ve actually been considering getting mine done, but I was iffy about it since vaginas are very sensitive areas. Also, the clit has about eighteen thousand nerves in it, and one fuck-up and bye-bye orgasms. Oh, I’m off subject, aren’t I? Anyway. Before you strike me, those Ben Wa Balls will come out your eye sockets, ripping their way free through them via every major organ in your body. That bullet in your ass? I’ll call it too, and instead of your eyes, it will come out your mouth, which would probably be a shitty deal for you, pun intended.
“Those nipple rings will go into your body, shredding that worthless organ in your chest. And while it doesn’t beat, it is needed to run everyone else’s blood through your ice-filled veins. That clit ring? Well, I’ll just let it rip that vital part of your anatomy apart, because I’m a total bitch like that. I’ll be a darling and leave your naval alone, since by then, you’ll already be dead enough for me to grab that sword and take that pretty head of yours off your neck. So, I mean, you could try, but in the time I’ve wagged my tongue, I’ve called your silver, and I’m willing to watch it work for me, because honestly, I want to see how big those balls are that you’re clenching so hard, trying to hold onto.” I crossed my arms, watching the anger burning in her eyes as I gave a little yank on the silver, and she shivered. “I can’t believe you’d be so stupid to get a text message sent to you about a Silversmith and run right over with all that silver, just begging me to play with it inside your body, Laura. Considering I have been hunting you down with my silver for the last five years after you murdered a ten-year-old child because you wanted her fucking ice cream, that’s rather sloppy.”
“I will fucking destroy you.”
“No, you won’t.”
She lunged, and I ignited with power, watching as she dropped to her knees. The silver rushing through her as it ripped her apart. My eyes swirled as my veins glowed, filling with power. My hair floated, igniting as the power surged through me. I grabbed the blade, swinging it in a wide arch as the other vampires moved forward, following their maker to their grave as their heads bounced across the floor.
I smiled coldly, bending with the blade in my hand to wipe it clean on Laura’s gaudy dress. I placed the sword back on the table and sat down with a bored expression as Rhys slid his hand to my thigh silently.
“I didn’t know Laura would come intending to harm her, Rhys, you have to believe me,” Eloisa said through trembling lips, slowly moving to stand beside him as she slipped into his lap.
Her arms wrapped around Rhys’s neck, and she tried to kiss him. But Cole pulled Eloisa over to him, his eyes slowly noting Rhys’s hand on my thigh. I relaxed, grateful that I wouldn’t be exposing my weakness to a room full of immortal alphas who would seek to use it against me.
“Now, Eloisa, why the fuck would we believe you? Haven’t you murdered the last nineteen women that Rhys showed interest in seeing for more than just feeding?” Cole asked, chuckling coldly as he stared at me. His smile turned dark as Eloisa gagged. My eyes lowered to her chest, where Cole’s hand protruded through the center, holding her heart out in front of her on display. “Hear me very clearly, everyone. Remington Silversmith is under Van Helsing protection, and an attempt on her life is an attempt on ours. You all know who wins in this fight if we go to war. Remington may have promised Rhys her silver, but her heart,” Cole stated, popping Eloisa’s like a mushy, oozing balloon of slime, “isn’t claimed yet, and at the end of the day, I couldn’t give two fucks about who owns her silver, as long as I get her heart.” His eyes held mine, forcing me to stare at the blood dripping from his hand.
Rhys s
norted, gripping my thigh tightly. He turned, studying me before his eyes dipped to the corpse beside us, who unfortunately wasn’t dead yet. Not unless I picked up that sword and removed Laura’s head, or Rhys did it. That would start a war, though, and we both knew it. I was willing to do it, considering how evil the cold-hearted bitch was. Killing children was a hard limit for me, and anyone who enjoyed their deaths deserved to die.
“As Remington Silversmith has given me her silver, I stand beside my brother’s claim. Other than him claiming her heart, as I have claimed her for myself for now,” Rhys stated, watching me carefully to see if I would argue with him. “If anyone has an issue with that, I will hear it now and challenge them and their house to honor my promise of protection. As you all know, a Van Helsing can only give one woman his protection in a lifetime, and I chose Remington Silversmith. I am duty-bound to protect my silver, and I mean to keep that promise.” Did that mean he’d married me too? I was so confused about how this shit worked.
“If you’re serious about her being the strongest Silversmith you’ve ever met, then Lord have mercy on you, Rhys Van Helsing, because I don’t think she intends to,” Griselda said, smiling as she took in the disgruntled look my face. “However, my house will stand with yours, as we have since the beginning. I do, however, think I will remain close by, in the event that something larger is brewing, and you need me at your side, and yours, Silversmith. You may not have the correct coloring, but you hold the fire of a forge within you, which Laura’s unfortunate ire exposed.”
“Thank you, Griselda,” Rhys acknowledged, bowing his head.
One by one, the houses gave Rhys a vow to honor the bond between us, whatever that meant. I hadn’t quite figured that part out yet. Nyx’s eyes held mine from where she sat on top of the bar, tapping her finger on the glass she held. There was worry in her eyes, and it sent a tightening to the pit of my stomach as she looked away.
If I were a better friend, I’d send Nyx away from the mess I had ended up in, but I was certain after I’d just harmed the alpha vampire’s second-in-command, he would be seeking revenge against me in any shape or form he could get it.
16
I sat at the bar, gulping down my third margarita as Nyx danced seductively to a heady beat. Acyn watched her with heat banked in his eyes, while Rhys argued with someone over the phone at the bar’s far end. Cole sat beside me, our legs touching to maintain contact, to counter the effects of my curse. He studied me as if he stared long enough, I’d cave and fall into his lap. Every few minutes, Rhys would go silent and turn to stare at Cole with a murderous expression. I just wished the alcohol would work quickly, and I could forget the sight of the Ben-Wa balls coming out of Laura’s eye sockets.
No matter how hard I lied to myself, I hated inflicting pain on people, even murderous monsters such as Laura. I much preferred to remain in the armory with the forge, creating weapons to wage the silent war against them. It might make me seem weak to these beings, but at least I didn’t suffer nightmares for days afterward.
“You keep looking like that, and I’m going to assume you need me to kiss those dark emotions away, Sunshine,” Cole said smoothly, pulling my attention toward where he sat.
His long fingers ran over the dew that dripped down the side of the glass from the condensation of ice and alcohol. The smile on his mouth twisted in my peripheral vision as he noted where my attention had gone. His finger slid through the wetness, moving toward his mouth, where his tongue flicked it erotically.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked, turning to face me as his eyes slid down my outfit. “I do miss women wearing dresses instead of pants. So much easier to lift them and taste their pretty petals. I bet you make the most delicious sounds when being devoured, Sunshine.”
“Does that work on women?” I asked carefully, somehow managing to keep my body from reacting to his seduction. Cole grabbed my hand before I could pull back, and the room faded away from us.
I was seated on the couch from earlier in the day, my legs spread over his thighs, but Rhys wasn’t there. Instead, Cole held me, slowly rubbing his thumb in a clumsy circle over my clit. His mouth kissed against my shoulder as he groaned hungrily.
“You were so wet for Rhys, where’s my cream, kitty? I want to lavish your pussy until you drip from my tongue. This pussy clenches for me, doesn’t it?” Cole asked huskily, pushing his fingertip against my opening. “Can I play with you too? I promise to share you with Rhys. You’re a greedy little bitch, and you’d enjoy all of us fucking you. I can sense your desires, your needs, Remington. You’re a hungry girl who needs feeding, and Rhys alone couldn’t sate you. Not without unleashing his demon, and he’s too afraid that he won’t be able to shove that gluttonous bastard back into the box once it comes out. I enjoy letting mine play, and he wants to fill this pretty flower full until you’re stretched around me, screaming my name as you come. Can I make you come, naughty girl?”
“Stop this,” I uttered huskily, closing my eyes and pushing away from Cole as the sound of glass shattering filled the bar. My hands released the shards of glass, and I stared at the blood coating my fingers.
“Fucking idiot,” Rhys snapped, grabbing my hands as he peered down at the damage. “Give me a clean towel, Payne.”
The bartender handed him a fresh white towel, which Rhys placed on the counter and set my hands on it. His fingers slowly ran over the sliced flesh, finding and pulling out the shards in silence. I winced as Rhys extracted the glass and then watched in trepidation as he nodded to the bartender, who smirked, sidling up to me as he leaned over the bar and licked my wounded flesh. The flash of his elongated fangs had me fighting Rhys’s hold on my wrist as the vampire healed the cuts to my fingers with his saliva.
“Stay the fuck out of her head unless she invites you in, brother,” Rhys warned Cole, his fingers slowly tracing over my wrist.
“She did invite me in, Rhys. If she hadn’t been interested in me, I couldn’t access her mind, now could I?” Cole taunted, the tick in his jaw matching Rhys’s as I sat between them.
“I’m starting to feel like a bone you dogs are fighting over,” I grumbled, lifting the new apple margarita to my lips and downing it in a single drink. I regretted it instantly as the brain freeze hit. I rubbed my forehead, turning to Rhys as his phone chimed again, and his eyes lifted over my shoulder to hold Cole’s.
“Take her home, and try not to molest her, at least until Beltane, Nikolas. I have matters that need my immediate attention, Remi. I’ll see you later at home,” he said absently. “You sleep in my room now. Your things were moved earlier today.”
“No, thank you.” I snorted, nodding toward the bartender for another drink.
“You’ve had enough alcohol. If you drink any more, you won’t be able to walk. Since Nikolas has left a mess of creatures mucking up my streets for me to handle, you’ll more than likely need your wits until I return to you.”
“Did you get the part where I said, no thank you? Or are you choosing to ignore me?” I answered pointedly, watching his eyes lift from his phone to hold mine.
“The bed in the room you slept in is broken and tossed into the trash until a new one is ordered. Unless you’d prefer to sleep with Cole in the guest chambers, my bed will have to suffice. I am not willing to compromise your propriety or force you to do anything you don’t wish to do, Remington. Cole, on the other hand, would use his magic to create an illusion where you’d be unable to tell fiction from fact, and you’d wake up in a compromised position.”
“Like when I woke up sucking your cock?” I asked, enjoying Cole’s choking as his drink went down the wrong pipe.
“Indeed. Exactly like that.”
“So the difference would be what, exactly?”
“I warned you that you didn’t have to do that for me. He’d enjoy it, and you’d end up waking to Cole doing much more than I would have allowed to happen without your consent.” Rhys pushed his phone into his pocket, lowering his eyes briefly to my mout
h, then lifted them once more to hold mine in silent challenge, daring me to argue with him.
“So you didn’t enjoy it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes to the heat burning in his pretty azure gaze. He swallowed, smiling wickedly as he gave me a pointed look.
“I came for you, didn’t I?”
“Indeed, you did. That isn’t the point. Any bitch can make a man come; men are easy like that. The question wasn’t whether you came; it was whether you enjoyed it?”
His eyes moved up and down my face before he chose his words. “I’ve thought of little else than the feel of your pretty pink lips wrapped around my cock since you smiled with my erection between them. Is that what you wanted to know? If you’re asking me if I crave those soft lips around my cock again, Remi, I assure you that the answer is yes.”
I swallowed as heat pooled in my core, which clenched as his lips curved into a sexy smirk. He stepped closer, wrapping his fingers through the hair on my nape, and brought his mouth flush against my ear.
“I intend to finish what we started earlier when I get home tonight. I hope to find you naked and waiting for my return. If you’re asleep, I’ll take that as your denial, and wait for you to be ready to accept this thing between us, woman,” he whispered huskily, the gravel embedded in his tone running against my flesh. “Please be naked and waiting, so that I can give you what you crave, and what we both need.”
He dragged his soft lips over my cheek, slowly releasing me. Rhys gave me a pointed stare before turning and walking away. I watched him as the knights at the bar entrance turned and walked out behind him, disappearing into the night. My eyes slid from where he’d vanished to Nyx, bent over a table with Acyn behind her.
“That escalated quickly,” Cole muttered as he chuckled. “Looks like it’s gonna be just you and me tonight, Sunshine. Unlike Rhys, I don’t think you’ve had nearly enough to drink yet.”
I exhaled a shuddered breath, grabbing my cup to turn away from the couple going at it, uncaring that everyone here could see them. Of course, it was just me, Cole, and the bartender now, but still. Talk about a hussy. Freaking nymphs, they had one goal, and that was to get off, however, wherever they could. If only life could be so simple. I was almost jealous of her, considering the current need and state of my body. I’d been messed with more in the last few days than in my entire life put together.