by Sofia Daniel
“No!” I let my eyes grow wide. This monstrous asshole loved to boast. “May I see?”
“Take off an item of clothing,” he said.
I slipped both arms out of the cardigan and stood in the black, strappy dress.
Radu’s gaze raked my form. “You will grow into Renée’s uniform when you absorb her life-force.”
Irritation surged to the back of my throat at the unfavorable comparison, but I pushed it down to my gut. What the hell did I care if Radu preferred six-foot-tall Amazons? If things went to plan, the life-draining asshole wouldn’t even have the eyes to check out women’s bodies.
“Your turn,” I murmured.
Radu unbuttoned his burgundy, leather pants, unleashing an alabaster penis with a rosy, bell-shaped head. Instead of standing upright or jutting out horizontally, the hideous appendage swayed like an enchanted cobra.
“Wow.” It was all I could muster up.
“I grew it myself.” Pride flushed in his cheeks. “And made it prehensile.”
“What does that mean?”
Radu’s thick appendage shot out like a lasso, wrapped itself around my waist, and yanked me into his hard body.
“Oh!” I turned my scream into an excited shriek. If I didn’t take control right now, that prehistoric dick would rip off my panties and tear me in half. “Let’s get on the bed. I want to see how much it can spurt.”
Radu grinned. “Like a fountain!”
Disgust coiled around my belly like the snake-like appendage between Radu’s legs. I did not doubt that he could fulfill those boasts. If Justine could transform a werewolf into a joint of meat, Radu could reshape his body to these ridiculous proportions.
Still clutching me around the middle with his trunk, he walked back through the suite to his rumpled bed.
A naked Lady Mantis lay spreadeagled on the mattress with bloodstained sheets covering her crotch. Her silver hair flowed around her head like an oversized halo, and her dark blue eyes bulged. Tears streamed down her cheeks, likely because of the multiple bite marks that littered her skin.
“My Lord,” I snapped.
Radu frowned. “What’s wrong?” He glanced around at the bed and chuckled. “Jealous?”
“You don’t expect me to suck you off when you have another woman in your bed.”
“She is but a snack,” Radu drawled. Magic streamed out from his body and snapped the chains keeping her tied to the headboard. “Is that better?”
“The sheets are stained with blood.”
Radu retracted his trunk and set me on my feet. He flipped the mattress, upending the vampire noblewoman, and turned back to me with hardened eyes.
“There.” A snarl of impatience tinged his voice. “All gone.”
I glanced at Lady Mantis, who cowered in the corner, clutching her chest. The torc around her neck pulsed as though warning her not to attempt to escape while her master was busy getting his post-victory blowjob.
Placing both hands on Radu’s chest, I pushed him down on the mattress. He sat, amusement dancing in his blue eyes.
“I like a girl who knows what she wants,” he purred. “And you’re not shy. Mantis described how she found you moaning like a slut with the Stryx brothers filling all three holes.”
I shot the vampire cowering at the bedside a dirty look.
Radu raised his hips off the bed. His bell-shaped cock-head protruded from his open fly. “I know you want to pull down my pants and take what you want.”
I only pulled his pants down to his knees. If things turned to shit, he might trip over when chasing after me. A little voice in the back of my head told me Radu still had enough magic to drain my life-force at the first sign of treachery, but I pushed it away and made a show of staring at his oversized genitals.
“My lord!” I gazed into a thatch of blond pubes curled into small ringlets. “You’ve got the biggest balls I’ve ever seen.”
“They’re eager to spurt for you.”
I reached out and wrapped my hand around a mango-sized testicle and gave it a hard squeeze.
With a moan, Radu’s huge body trembled, and jets of pearlescent semen painted his chest.
A surge of excitement pushed away my lingering disgust. This was just about enough semen to enact my plan. Scrambling up Radu’s body, I sat directly on top of his dick and placed a restraining hand beneath its tip. “You’re amazing!”
He let his eyes flutter shut. “Taste me.”
My breaths came in shallow pants, and I stared down at the liquid glistening on his chest. Before I had completed my bond with Dante, when I had needed blood and semen to survive, this would have been a mouth-watering sight. Radu’s spunk vibrated with power. It was likely as potent as Dracula’s blood.
“Yum!” I said with all the fake enthusiasm I could muster. “Let me spread it about. I want to lick every inch of you, My Lord.” I stuck my fingers into the liquid and drew an upright parallelogram and crossed it twice around the middle, so it looked like a lopsided ‘H.’
Next, I drew a five-sided star and around it a star with six sides. Throughout this, I kissed and nibbled on his prominent nipples to make him think I was trying to make foreplay.
Radu moaned. “You are playing with your food.”
“I’m taking my time to explore this magnificent body.” Drawing a seven-sided star, I reached between my legs and ran my left hand around Radu’s bell-end, making the monster shudder with pleasure. “You’re so responsive, I can’t help myself.”
“Oh,” he cried out. “Stick your fingers into my slit and scoop out more of my cum.”
It was the least I could do for Radu, considering this would be his last few moments on earth. My fingers slipped through the opening of his spongy cock-head, which gobbled my fingertips with the suction power of a toothless mouth.
“You’re full of surprises!” I drew one circle and then another around the shapes, making sure to join them with eight spokes.
Radu grinned. “Wait until I stretch you open with my huge cock.”
I scrambled off his prehensile dick, off his mammoth body, and off the bed. “That won’t be happening.”
Radu sat up, the sigil on his chest glowing. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re going to be very busy in a second.”
He glanced down at his chest. “What did you do?”
A low, throaty laugh echoed from deep within the monster’s gut. “Radu…” Then an armored hand emerged from Radu’s solar plexus. “It has been an eternity.”
Lady Mantis screamed and thrashed and scuttled further into the corner. I sent a blast of pain into her soul-star chakra, a reminder of what I could do if she decided to interfere.
“What is this?” Radu gaped at the second hand emerging from his belly.
Ademenitor pulled his torso out, but the rest of the spirits’ body remained within Radu’s body. “Do you remember me?”
Radu’s blue eyes bulged. “We agreed you would take my soul at the end of my natural life—”
“Which was centuries ago,” growled the spirit. “And today, you sustained enough damage to kill an army.”
“No!”
“It is time,” Ademenitor said in a voice so deep, it made the lining of my stomach tremble.
Thick trunks of magic shot out from Radu’s throat chakra and wrapped around the spirits armored neck, but Ademenitor laughed. “Every ounce of struggle hastens your demise. You are the fattened calf who will nourish me for centuries!”
Radu raised his head and fixed his blazing, blue eyes on me. “You did this!”
I stepped back to the other corner of the bedroom, but Radu’s magic shot out and wrapped around my body like an elephant’s trunk. My stomach plummeted. It would take a mere second for him to rip out the chakras just like I had done with the low-level hunters.
“Stop, My Lord!” A lie tore from my lips. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
My feet slid along the marble floor, and panic spiked through my g
ut.
“Traitorous wretch,” Radu growled. “I offered you power beyond measure and a place at my side. Now you will keep me company in the belly of the beast!”
“Let go.” Closing my eyes, I set his tendrils on fire, but with each one I burned, another would encircle my waist and drag me a few inches closer to the bed, where Ademenitor devoured Radu’s body. “Justine’s already down there!”
The doors flew open, and Raphael rushed to my side and snatched my right hand. Nero grabbed my left. Dante and Gates stood at the other boys’ sides and added their strength.
“What is the meaning of this?” Radu snarled.
Power surged in my veins. I focussed on Nero’s fiery energy and pushed more magic into Radu’s grasping tentacles. White-hot flames spread down Radu’s appendages and engulfed his body.
“I’m not going with you,” I snarled. “Not when I have four mates who need me.”
His malevolent glare roved over the boys. “You chose these weaklings over me?”
Ademenitor spread his arms wide and lay back on the bed, engulfing Radu’s physical body. “Are these your last words?”
“Stop,” Radu’s muffled scream echoed from within the spirit.
I continued pouring molten magic into the combined body of Ademenitor and Radu, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air.
“Wait.” The spirit raised an arm that appeared worryingly solid. “If you ruin his body, I won’t be able to—”
“More,” I shouted. “We need to burn Radu’s shell!”
We all pushed everything we had into attacking the fused entity, which thrashed on the burning bed. Flames engulfed the structure—headboard and all—obscuring my view of Radu and Ademenitor.
Singed feathers floated in the air, and tendrils of magic flew toward us, but I focussed every ounce of pain and anger and grief into making sure Ademenitor didn’t use Radu’s body to inhabit the physical world.
Sweat stung my eyes, fire spread through my veins, and my hands ached from Nero and Dante’s tight grips. I pushed the pain aside. All that mattered was preventing the emergence of a monster even more terrible than Radu.
“Accursed fiends!” Ademenitor’s voice shook the room. “If I ever see you again…” It faded into the flames.
I slumped forward, my throat dry and hoarse from the fire, and my limbs trembled with the effort of processing all that magic. Raphael wrapped an arm around my waist to keep me upright while Nero continued holding my hand in a grip harder than steel.
For a while, nobody spoke. Only the crack of flames and the whimpering of Lady Mantis in the corner broke the silence. I exhaled several shuddering breaths. That had been more horrific than the battle between the hunters and the vampires.
“Are you alright?” asked Dante.
“I could use a nice, long drink,” I said. “How are you four?”
“Glad you’re fine,” said Raphael.
“In awe,” said Nero.
“In love,” Dante said with a laugh.
“Shag later,” said Gates. “We still have a bunch of hunters to defeat.”
“They’ll be child’s play compared to Radu,” said Dante.
“You’re both right.” I blew out a breath and let go of Nero’s hand to wipe a mix of sweat and grease from my face. Right now, I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, but we had a bunch of hunters to kill. “Let’s go.”
We left behind Radu’s still-burning remains, walked out of the bedroom and through the living area where Captain Tanar had forced me to give Miss Margolyes lessons on how to connect to her magic. I eyed the ornate sofa we had shared, glad that I never took up the captain’s offer. He would have been a tyrant with this level of power.
Gates strode ahead and opened the door with a flourish, only to reveal the whitened husks of hunters littering the hallways.
My mouth dropped open. “How on earth—”
“Scorpion ants?” asked Nero. “We only knocked them out.”
A figure stepped out of the shadows, surrounded by a group of eight and nine-year-old children, all clad in black leather. The ten-year-old boy from the limousine posed proudly at the figure’s side with his hands on his hips, as though he had scored a major victory.
“Shit,” I muttered.
I turned my gaze back to the warrior, who stood six feet four with a battle-hardened muscular physique. Mahogany ringlets, the same length as Radu’s tumbled down his shoulders.
“Excellent work, my children,” he said. “I have trained you well.”
“What are we going to do with them, Lord Dracula?” asked the boy.
“I have no use for the males. Do with them as you will.” His gaze roved down my form. “But the girl who defeated Radu will become my mate.”
Chapter 22
Dante, Nero, Raphael, and Gates stepped in front of me, their bodies shielding me from Dracula’s gaze. I swallowed hard. If I’d known Dracula would resurface after the battle to pick us off, I might have lain low and waited for him to confront Radu. Exhaustion flickered in the boys’ chakras, indicating that they were just as depleted as I felt.
The sound of little footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Dracula said, “You are the Stryx brothers, yes?”
Dante folded his arms across his chest. “That’s correct. And the girl you wish to claim is the property of the Kingdom of Stryx.”
My heart slammed against my ribcage. Events of the previous term told me that the Vampire Parliament didn’t give a damn about upsetting the boys’ father.
Dracula chuckled. “Tanar’s missive said he held you captive for the murder of Micalla Mantis. How did you break free?”
The boys remained silent, but Raphael flinched.
I glanced down at my feet. A shadow extended through the doorway and wrapped around their bodies like bondage ropes. My stomach dropped. Was this the power Ademenitor gave Dracula in exchange for his soul?
“Release us, or—” said Dante, but shadows snaked around his neck, cutting off his words.
“Answer my question,” said Dracula. “My shadows can pierce a vampire’s heart.”
My stomach churned. I wasn’t sure of the boys’ capabilities, but not many beings could survive such an injury. Words tumbled out of my mouth. “Radu forced Captain Tanar to free the knockers, and the wards securing the dungeons fell.”
Dracula loosened his grip around Dante, making him sag. Through the gaps in the boys’ body, I saw the old vampire hand a set of black reins to identical twin girls who looked about eight. “Take them to a cell and secure them with shadows,” said Dracula. “I wish to spend time alone with the frumosi female.”
“Yes, father.” The one on the right took the reins and pulled the brothers along the hallway by the shadows.
“What about the werewolf?” asked the boy we met in the limousine.
Dracula waved a dismissive hand, and the shadows around Gates shrank into shackles around his hands and feet. “Push him out of the front doors to rejoin his pack.”
As a pair of nine-year-old boys dragged Gates down the hall, Dracula turned to me, a grin curling under his thick mustache. “You are Alicia Stephens, yes?”
A thin hand shoved me in the back, making me stumble forward. Lady Mantis’ haughty voice said, “This is the frumosi girl I retained for your inspection.”
Dracula grabbed my arms, holding me steady. “A very nice specimen.”
A little girl leaped onto my back and fastened a collar around my neck. What was left of the energy thrumming on my skin dimmed, and my legs collapsed.
“There, there.” Keeping me upright with his tight grip around my right arm, Dracula tilted up my chin and forced eye contact.
“What have you done?” I croaked.
Dracula’s crimson eyes twinkled. “You feel the effects of the scorpion collar? This weapon took years to refine. My people experimented with numerous hunters we captured over the years. And it works very well on powerful frumosi such as yourself.”
I wrapped m
y fingers around the collar, but a sucking motion on my magic had me snatching my hand away. “Why?”
“When we mate, I want full control of your power.” The vampire loomed over me and placed a hand under my chin.
Remembering what the onion woman had said about his ‘sex appeal,’ I lowered my gaze to his luxuriously thick mustache in case Dracula decided to mesmerize me into finding him attractive.
Something dark and malevolent—his shadows, I think—snaked around my body and forced my head up. I tried closing my eyes, but the same force wedged them open.
“Look into the eyes of your future mate.” His cold voice echoed through my mind.
A panicked breath slipped from my lips. I flared my magic, directing my tendrils to force back the cold shadows wrapping around my chakras, but they were too fast, too agile, too experienced at dealing with hunter and frumosi magic at close quarters.
“Do not fight me,” he whispered into my ear, filling my nostrils with the coppery scent of blood.
Goosebumps prickled across my skin. This was the first time I’d encountered a vampire who didn’t drink sangria. Dracula’s breath was like a slaughterhouse.
“You desire Dracula,” his words resounded in my skull, making its bones vibrate. “You find him intriguing and seductive. You yearn to have him as your mate.”
Cold sweat broke across my skin. I couldn’t let him know I’d mated with the boys, or Dracula would murder them to break our bonds. With every ounce of my flailing power, I pushed the boys to the recesses of my mind. A malevolent cold filled the gaps and swirled through my psyche, holding my free will in a tight grip.
“I find Dracula intriguing and seductive,” my lips said of their own volition. “I yearn to have him as my mate.”
The older vampire gave me a satisfied smirk. “Mantis, please prepare my eager little Alicia for her new life.”
She dipped into a low curtsey. “Yes, My Lord.”
Leaving me still encased in his shadows, Dracula turned on his heel. “Come, my children, we will sniff out what the remaining hunters, liberate the vampires, and restore the frumosi to their rightful place.”
The crowd of young day-walkers followed him down the hallway like he was the pied piper. As they rounded the corner, Lady Mantis dragged me back to Radu’s former suite.