by Aja James
But he didn’t utter a sound.
Instead, his arms came around her, enfolding her loosely in his embrace.
As if the buffalo was giving the lioness permission to eat him alive.
Abruptly, she let him go.
She pulled out of his neck and licked the wounds closed. Put her hands on either side of his face as she propped herself up to look down at him.
“Why do you let me hurt you?” she murmured in a truly bewildered voice, her fury and wildness subsiding as his warmth enveloped her, calmed her.
He turned back to her and opened his eyes.
“Better that you hurt me than hurt yourself.”
A frown of incomprehension flitted across her brow.
He raised a hand to cup her cheek gently, in stark contrast to how she’d treated him.
“I can handle your pain, my lady. You don’t have to bear it alone.”
What pain? She didn’t feel any pain.
Except, strangely, a tear slid down her cheek into his hand.
Before she could brush her eyes, his thumb was there to wipe the moisture from her lashes.
Then, he rubbed her tear between thumb and forefinger, so that it absorbed into his skin.
As if he was absorbing her pain into himself.
“Did something happen tonight?” he asked quietly, patiently.
As if she hadn’t attacked him with a viciousness that made some long forgotten part of her howl with grief.
She merely stared into his wide gray eyes, now clear of the opaqueness that clouded them before. She knew him well enough by now to know that it was his armor, the mask he wore.
Though she wondered whether he wore it for his own sake or for hers. Because when she hurt him, she somehow hurt herself in equal measure.
She didn’t understand why she felt this way, just that she hated herself for hurting him, even as she compelled herself to do it.
“I’m sorry,” she rasped out, and fought a fresh wave of tears back down her throat.
“I know,” he said simply.
Gingerly, she curled against his chest and tucked her face into the crook of his neck.
“I faced my enemies today,” she told him. “And they almost beat me. Not because they were more powerful or cunning or ruthless, but because they were from within. My own Hive is rising up against me. My own…family…is trying to eject me.”
He tightened his arms around her, infusing her with his strength.
“But they did not succeed?”
She shook her head.
“Not for lack of trying. The creature you told me about, the one the Elite fought before three years ago, it was there. It pretended to be Medusa. I don’t even know if it was impersonating the real her or someone else entirely. But it was definitely the creature. It did not give me a name.”
“How did you defeat the odds?”
“I’m not sure I have defeated them,” she admitted. “I’ve only been given a reprieve, though I don’t know how long it will last. The Dark nobles are making demands I refuse to accommodate, so I expect to face them again very soon.”
“What are the demands?”
She was silent for so long he wondered whether she’d answer.
Finally, she shifted on top of him until he was positioned directly against her entrance, her nether lips kissing the thick column of his erection, the juices of her unquenchable lust for him wetting them both.
“I am strongly advised to take a Consort or Mate,” she replied, and watched him unblinkingly for his reaction.
He gave away no tell, save a slight flicker of his bristly lashes.
Why, oh, why couldn’t she read him like an open book?
“Any candidates worth considering?” he asked without inflection, as if he were asking what her favorite color was, or her favorite flavor of ice cream.
“Would you care if there were?” she asked silkily, grinding down on him and taking the tip of him inside.
“Yes, my lady,” he answered huskily, “I care.”
She took him another inch deeper.
“Why?”
His hands gripped her hips to stop her movements. His hold was gentle but firm.
She wouldn’t have more of him unless he allowed it.
“You should seriously consider the Dark nobles’ suggestion,” he said, instead of answering her question, “A…Mate will keep you safe.”
“I can keep myself safe,” she retorted, trying to screw him further into her by pressing and twisting down as hard as she could.
But his hold on her remained firm; his penetration still shallow.
She growled in frustration and impatience at being thwarted.
“What if I tell you that this is one of my requests?” he asked quietly. “For you to take a Consort or Mate.”
Stunned, her body went slack as she stared at him confounded.
“I would never share my authority,” she refuted immediately.
“I rule alone. And…”
Her brow puckered again.
She wanted to play coy, she wanted to keep the upper hand by pretending their relationship, or whatever this was between them, was a simple exchange of services and resources, but she wanted to know him too much to play the game.
They had so little time left.
“I thought you didn’t like to share,” she said tentatively.
“Don’t you care that I’d be taking my pleasures with another male?”
Another slight shudder rippled through his torso, but his face remained impassive.
“I’d be gone by then. You should have someone to keep you strong and protect you.”
She stared into his eyes intensely, as if she were trying to spear through his shields, see inside of him.
But she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, he was a Sphinx.
It was never a good idea to show your opponent the hand you had, but Jade was getting more desperate and uncontrolled by the minute. He wouldn’t be manipulated anyway. She might as well go all out with the truth:
“What if I want you indefinitely?” she stated clearly, “I want to renegotiate our terms. What do you want in return for staying by my side forever?”
Another shudder racked him, this time making his entire body tremble, as if am internal fissure was splitting him apart.
He turned his face to the side and clenched his jaw, and she knew he was in a tremendous amount of pain.
Because she felt it too, a phantom echo of what he felt.
Was the thought of staying with her so abhorrent? Did he despise her so much?
She could never tell with him.
She read others’ energies clearly—their physical and mental desires, but she could never be sure of feelings.
She knew that he desired her. She hadn’t used her powers to command his arousal, not even once when he was with her, but he was always enduringly hard for her, as if he’d been put on this earth for the sole purpose of filling and pleasing her.
And yet he never fully gave in to his body’s demands. His mind always controlled his flesh, and his will was unbreakable.
He forced himself to face her again and looked into her eyes.
For once, he couldn’t hide the hurricane of emotions within his gaze.
“Why do you want me, Jade?” he asked quietly, his voice reduced to a gravelly whisper.
“You know why,” she growled immediately.
Did he want her to parade her weakness for him out in the open to be dissected and picked at so she’d have everything to lose in their negotiation and he had all the bargaining power?
For Dark Goddess’s sake, she was a queen!
She didn’t have to bargain with him. She could enslave him by force if she chose to. With every exchange they had he broke her down some more, and she was downright resentful of it!
He just continued to look at her, refusing to respond to her reopening of their negotiation.
“Fine,” she hissed, deadly savagery back in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you why. Because you make me more powerful than I’ve ever felt before. I want exclusive, unlimited access to that power. Your blood, your body, your seed, the pleasure of fucking you—they’re my drug. I’m addicted. I’m willing to pay just about anything, so name your price, dammit!”
With her every word, the fissure within him seemed to split deeper, for she felt him trembling more violently.
Even the stoic mask on his face seemed to fracture, enough for his breath to hitch.
He swallowed hard and stilled his body by sheer force of will.
Holding her feral gaze, he finally answered, “Five days.”
“What?!”
She couldn’t believe her ears!
Did he just negotiate down his end of the contract?!
“Five more days of my… services…for three requests,” he said clearly, “and the first is that you will take a Dark Consort or Mate with my approval within the next three days.”
Both her hands shot out as if on their own accord and wrapped around his neck, her powers funneling through his skin to paralyze him from the neck down, sapping him of all his strength.
“I don’t have to play this game,” she growled.
“You push me too far!”
He kept his eyes locked with hers. Something indefinable burned through the gray of his irises to make them glint like tempered steel.
“Yes,” he admitted, “You can rape me, enslave me, force me to you will. If that’s what you want, do it.”
She wanted to.
Oh, she really fucking wanted to.
Maybe if she tore him apart she wouldn’t feel so helpless and at his mercy.
She knew she’d be tearing herself apart in the process, but at least there would be no recourse. She’d be done with him.
She’d ruin everything before it could ruin her.
But even as she thought it, as she seethed with violence and frustration, her hands returned his strength to him and released him from paralysis.
“Five days,” she bit out, still reeling with disbelief how much ground she was losing in this negotiation.
“And a Consort within three days. No Mate. With your permission, of course.”
The last she added sarcastically, baring her fangs in the toothy semblance of a smile.
“Granted.”
And suddenly she found herself trapped beneath him on her back, their positions switched in the blink of an eye.
Before she could catch her breath, he thrust hard and deep inside of her, ramming all the way to the hilt with one pump of his powerful hips and buttocks, triggering an explosion of volcanic pleasure so staggering her eyesight went black for a few seconds.
Uhn.
Was all she could utter as he began to move inside her, building up another crisis before her first had even passed its zenith.
She clawed her nails down his broad, muscular back, which flexed sinuously with each thrust, to the hard globes of his ass, and dug in.
He widened his thighs and elevated her hips, finding a new angle to drive her insane, one hand propping her up, while the other splaying over her mons, his thumb pressing down on her clitoris with perfect pressure as he slowly drove inside.
Then just as painstakingly withdrew a couple of inches before driving back inside again, grinding against the hard core of her deep within on each advance, making the walls of her vagina clench around him greedily to keep his hardness where she needed him most.
Over and over, he brought her to shattering climax, overwhelming her with euphoria and ecstasy, feeding her power until she thought her skin would burst from trying to contain it.
Yet, still he kept finding more pleasure to squeeze out of her.
His mouth knew just where to suckle, his hands knew just where to touch. He gave her everything he had, everything she wanted, but she always wanted more.
“Kiss me,” she commanded, though her voice was a hoarse scratch she was so exhausted she couldn’t move.
He did, slanting his hot mouth over hers and giving her his tongue to suck.
She latched on with whatever strength she had left, filled to overflowing with insensible bliss.
And yet she still said, “More. I want more.”
He pulled her legs around the small of his back and deepened his thrusts, if that were possible, as his tongue continued to plunder her mouth.
You. I want you.
No sooner had the thought formed in her mind, his entire body drew taut like a steel cable about to snap.
With a harsh groan, he broke for her, flooding her womb with his hot, Nourishing seed.
His mouth still covering hers, she felt his lips quiver, felt his breath shorten to gasps, as his heart pounded triple time against her chest.
He was raw and vulnerable in that moment, and she rejoiced in the fact that he was only this way with her. She was absolutely certain no one had ever stripped him of all his armor, not even in his human life.
He was naked and shattered in her arms, in her body, in her blood.
She loved it.
She reveled in it.
She wrapped her arms and legs more tightly around him to keep him with her. Right here where she wanted him.
She just wished it could be forever.
*** *** *** ***
Corvinus had been easy to break.
Squealed like a pig led to slaughter.
The Chosen were rather disgusted, for Corvinus knew he was going to a traitor’s execution; there could be no other outcome. Yet he still betrayed his compatriots with his sniveling, groveling pleas.
Good riddance. They didn’t need a weak link like him in their Hive.
No luck with Antonov, though.
The human gangster was truly emptied of his thoughts and memories. He didn’t respond to physical pain, nor psychological pressure. He seemed entirely braindead.
Maxmius surreptitiously deposited him with human law enforcement nearby, neatly wrapped in a bow of iron chains Houdini couldn’t get out of.
He just hoped the humans wouldn’t screw this gift up and lose Antonov again. The Russian mob boss was too well connected to let loose. It would have been easier to end his miserable existence, but he was human, and therefore outside of the Chosen’s brand of justice.
“But what to do with the information Corvinus provided,” Ryu said in a tone that meant he didn’t really expect answers.
“I’m with you, senpai,” Devlin agreed.
“It’s not like we can wage war against two leading Hives within the States and an alliance of some of the strongest Hives abroad. This movement against humans and Pure Ones is broader and more entrenched than I thought, building steadily for some time now. The only reason they’re targeting New England is because Jade commands the strongest Hive in the world, and whoever controls this Hive has the highest likelihood of controlling the rest.”
“That would be the first step in a consolidation of Dark rule,” Maximus growled. “A first step toward the way it used to be in ancient times, when there was only one Dark queen who ruled over the entire race.”
“Races, you mean,” Anastasia added. “If I were Medusa, and that was my game, my second step would be to subjugate the Pure Ones again to ensure unlimited access to Pure blood, the strongest food for vampires.”
“I guess that makes conquering humans the third step?” Grace ventured. “Or are there other races out there to control or eradicate first.”
As usual, her tone was completely neutral, even though she was talking about the mass extermination of living beings.
Only Devlin knew her distress, for her hand gripped his tightly beneath the conference table.
“The Sage might know of other Kinds,” Maximus guessed.
“I myself have not encountered them, not that I know of, in any case. But Ramses is oldest amongst us. He might know more. Simone might have known more too, as she used to be the Keeper of our histories. But…”
But Simone had been a traitoro
us bitch, and Inanna, the ex-Chosen and Angel of Death, had killed her in their Blood Challenge over Inanna’s Mate, Gabriel.
“What other Kinds could there be?” Grace asked curiously.
Ana shrugged and rolled her eyes, showing that she didn’t really believe what she was about to say.
“Humans like to dramatize all kinds of myths and legends in modern culture. If Dark Ones are vampires, and Pure Ones might be elves, think about what else you see in the movies or read in books.”
“Like weres, fae and witches?” Grace prodded.
“Or Shadows like me,” Ryu supplied. “I come from a specific breed of vampires that has the power to turn to shadows. I and my sire are the only ones of our Kind remaining in this world, as far as we know. Well, and my son Kane, but he is only one-quarter Shadow, since I am only half.”
“But you’re still a vampire,” Grace noted.
Her extremely rigorous mind had already catalogued the Assassin under a sub-genus of the Dark species, if indeed they could be called a species.
“Makes me wonder if there was a species that was entirely Shadow, that cross-bred with Dark Ones, though,” Devlin murmured.
“And from Ava’s experience recently, as well as what we witnessed last night, there are also Shapeshifters,” Ryu added.
His superhuman wife had explained briefly about Tal-Telal and his Mate, Ishtar Anshar, who used to be an ancient Dark Princess and who could transform into various humanoid shapes and forms, as well as into a leopard.
“Let’s not forget our familiars,” Maximus said, stroking Simca’s head as she sat on her haunches beside his chair.
“They are eternal companions to Pure and Dark Ones alike. Perhaps they are a race unto themselves.”
“I have heard, when I used to be human as a child, about fairies,” Ana grudgingly contributed. "Creatures who possess the ability to control the elements, like fire, earth, water, air.”
“Shadows could be a subset of that,” Ryu extrapolated, “for we are trained to manipulate the air until we become one with it.”
“Okay,” Grace summarized, “so maybe Medusa has a plan for the other races too, before she attempts to conquer the broader populous, which would be humans.”