War of the Gods Complete Series Boxed Set

by Meg Xuemei X

  All the other vampires roared with laughter, except Lorcan and Xihin.

  The High Lord of Night kept his face expressionless. He seemed to want to hear out the thoughts of his men, or perhaps he just wouldn’t bother with defending me, not that I required him to.

  Xihin snarled, “You’ll not laugh at his High Lord’s mate.”

  Still, one single silvery laugh lingered, and that charmed peal came from Selena.

  The vampires must have gotten used to poking fun at Lorcan’s previous women and gotten away with it, or they wouldn’t have been so bold. Even though Lorcan had introduced me as his mate in front of them, they figured I was just his newest shiny toy. Especially when Lorcan mentioned that I was also mated to his bonded brothers.

  They thought I was a whore he’d brought to share with others.

  “She won’t last, just like others,” Selena said. “She’ll be dumped like last year's cheap shoes.”

  My non-vampire companions growled, and violence whipped the air. One more snapping line and there’d be pain or even death in the room.

  Alaric’s fist opened, a lightning bolt eagerly waiting to spear the vampires on the opposite side of the table.

  However, I wouldn’t let anyone upstage my show.

  I peeled open an eye. “Talking about me?”

  I yawned, spreading my arms. My air current lashed out, tossing all the vampires, except Lorcan and Xihin, to the walls.

  The vampires widened their eyes before struggling to free themselves and hissing, uncomfortable with the legs of their chair or armrests half-glued to their suited asses. My air magic didn’t seem to give a fuck and pinned them tighter against the wall.

  My non-vampire companions chuckled.

  “Thank you for admiring my drooling,” I said. “I bet you’d appreciate a show after a long meeting.”

  A stream of black fire whooshed out of me, circling the vampires in a half ring.

  They tried to throw their heads back to put distance between my fire and their person, their eyes going all white in apprehension.

  “My lord, will you allow the slut to treat us this way?” Selena asked, her gray eyes burning with icy steam.

  “You’re lucky I allow you to speak at all,” I said. “But then, I’m all for freedom of speech, even though it’s overrated since it’s overly abused.”

  “Selena, stop, if you still want to be the mistress of the court,” Xihin said. “Things will change from now on. Weren’t any of you listening when his High Lord said High Lady Cass Saélihn is his mate?”

  “It can’t be!” Selena nearly shrieked. “The High Lord of Night would never want a street rat.”

  Jezebel’s comments about me ending up a street rat without her flashed back to me. Anything that remotely reminded me of my mother brought out the worst in me. I heard a smack sound, and Selena snapped her head left and right as my air current slapped her cheeks.

  “I let you all go this far because I wanted High Lady Saélihn to punish you first,” Lorcan said icily. “Disrespect her again, and I’ll tear your hearts out.”

  “Try to hurt a hair on my mate’s head,” Alaric said matter-of-factly, “and I’ll do worse than yank out your hearts.”

  The fae twins didn’t say anything, but their smiles to the vampires were chilly. Personally, I would rather hear threats than face those smiles.

  My mates all knew that Lorcan’s rogue vampires had tried to kill me along with Dario’s goons in ShadesStar. They didn’t trust this lot in front of them, either.

  But vampires were way less dangerous than the gods, so my other mates had listened to Lorcan’s idea and come to his court. They were also confident that I would be safe as long as I was within sight of one of them.

  And I appreciated that the overbearing alpha males had let me defend myself first.

  I sighed. Vampires understood power and cruelty, so I had to show my power to be at the top of the hierarchy. I also needed to pump fear into them, so they wouldn’t be like the horde of vampires in ShadesStar court who had tried to cut me to pieces.

  However, I hadn’t expected Lorcan to play it out like this.

  I thought I was cunning but, compared to my mates, I was but an ant looking up giant mountains. All of my mates were strategists with an eon of experience.

  “Dulcis,” Lorcan said with a loving, rather than reproaching, voice. “I understand they offended you and got what they deserved. If it weren’t for my celebratory mood at having found my mate, I’d have punished them severely. However, in the future, I’d consider it a favor if you didn’t go around intimidating and hitting anyone who irritates you.”

  “I don’t go around hitting anyone! I’m not a maniac!”

  “Now, will you release them, dulcis?” Lorcan said softly.

  “Under one condition,” I said in a bad mood.

  Lorcan arched an eyebrow. “Which is?”

  “I want to go shopping after the meeting,” I said. “I’m stressed out, and shopping cools my jets. Besides, I need five pairs of boots. You have to try on shoes in person to know if they fit.”

  “Oh, no, not again,” Reysalor groaned.

  “What happened when she went shopping?” Pyrder asked.

  “She stayed in the mall the entire day,” Reys said. “She’s curious about everything. She’d have bags of buttered and salted popcorn and try to sneak into a theater without buying a ticket. And she’d try to taste every flavor of ice cream. It’ll need ten horses’ power to drag her away from a mall.”

  “I like shopping, too,” Alaric said with a grin. “I’ll take Cass.”

  Alaric had no idea what shopping with me was like, but I grinned at him for his courage. It was great to have many mates, because I could always find one who had a common interest with me.

  “Can we get back on track? The meeting isn’t over!” Lorcan asked drily. “And, dulcis, will you kindly release my men? I think they’ve learned a lesson or two.”

  I flicked my wrist dismissively and my magic lost interest in the vampires. They dropped to the floor with their chairs, and only through their supernatural reflexes did they land on their feet instead of their asses.

  A few looked grumpy instead of grateful, and Selena’s stare was a death threat.

  “I captured the God of Terror and I should have unleashed him on you instead of lifting my own fingers,” I said, flashing a sweet smile at the mistress before I scanned the other vampires. “So you’ll be friendlier to me, knowing I’m not the worst kind. By the way, over ninety of your peers ambushed me in ShadesStar, hoping to cut my head off, and only one of them wasn’t burned to ashes. Do you want to know which one? My dearest mother.”

  A flash of dark light lit Lorcan’s storm-gray eyes, and I caught regret, pain, and fury in them. He’d blamed himself for the attack on me.

  Reys looked both incensed and amused. He was infuriated that Jezebel had gotten away but amused that I upped the numbers of attackers every time I retold the story. If I still remembered it correctly, the original number of assassins was around thirty.

  “Is the God of Terror in our court, my lord?” Selena asked, distracting him from feeling sorry and protective of me.

  “Locked in the fortified cell,” Lorcan said coldly.

  A subtly peeved expression flitted over Selena’s gorgeous face. Evidently, she was unhappy that she’d been omitted from the security details. What would she expect? When Lorcan’s bonded brothers were all here, they became his tightest circle, and I was his mate, so naturally, I was in, too.

  The other vampires looked unsettled that the terror god was among them, their faces paling more. No one liked Phobos so close, except me.

  “How can we contain a god, my lord?” Selena said. “It’s never heard of.”

  “High Lady Saélihn can control him,” Lorcan said, his gray eyes surveying his subjects. “Sebastian and Selena, kneel and apologize to my mate, for you both offended her.”

  When Lorcan called me High Lady Saélihn, it so
unded seriously like the real deal.

  Sebastian, the vampire who had mocked me, went down on his knees right away. “High Lady Saélihn, I misjudged you. It won’t happen again. From now on, I’ll serve you as I’ve served his High Lord.”

  This one changed his attitude on a dime, but he seemed sincere. I waved him to get up. I wasn’t as mean as they’d assumed.

  Selena stood tall. “My lord, I fought for a position beside you and earned it. I’ve never failed you until today I called your new girl a slut. She might be a weapon that can kill the gods, which has yet to be proven, but I’ve proved my loyalty and usefulness to you for centuries.”

  “If it weren’t for your loyalty and centuries of services,” Lorcan said, “I’d have killed you for insulting my mate.”

  “You’ve only known her for a few weeks, my lord,” Selena cried. “She can’t be your true mate. That girl is a black witch. She must have bewitched you, High Lord. And have you no feelings for me, for all I’ve done to please you in every way?”

  “I’ve had no feelings for anyone until I met my mate,” Lorcan said. “My true mate has made my heart beat for her and brought back my emotions. You’ll not disrespect her in any way. Offend her again and you’ll be banished. Your half-sister Jade tried to harm my mate and lies in her grave. Do not follow her path.”

  Wow, that was cold. Though Lorcan was defending me, he was just like any other vampire. They were all cold bastards. I hadn’t seen this side of him, or had refused to acknowledge it, because he was one of the sexiest males walking the Earth.

  Maybe I should reevaluate this mate thing. I was drawn to all of them like a stupid moth to the flame, but did I really know them? Had I made a mistake in bonding one already? Should I stop bonding the rest?

  Lorcan snapped his head toward me, feeling my turmoil.

  “Do not fear me, dulcis. I might be a cold bastard. It’s in my nature, as I’m lord to all vampires, but I’ll never be cold and callous toward you, to my very own, and I won’t allow anyone to hurt you in any way.”

  When Selena dropped to her knees, I was already half out of the door.

  I didn’t want her apologies.

  I didn’t care for the High Lord of Night demonstrating his iron rule in the Court of Blood and Void, either.

  But I wouldn’t walk away from Lorcan because of his flaws. I just hadn’t expected his insane protectiveness toward me. He would destroy the world for me without blinking. The question was whether I wanted that.

  5

  I went shopping to blow off steam.

  My companions—Alaric, five fae warriors, and Xihin— stuck to me like shadows. And then instead of letting me hang out in the one mall the gods hadn’t leveled, Alaric rushed me to Lorcan’s court after an hour and eighteen minutes. That was how long his patience lasted.

  I vowed that I would never bring men to the mall again. I needed to find a girl shopping buddy, which seemed impossible while these scary males wouldn’t leave me alone.

  When I returned to the blood court, I was still frustrated, so I decided to pay Phobos a visit.

  I dressed in a sports bra, yoga pants, and a pair of pink flipflops. Flipflops weren’t comfortable to walk in, but the vampires hated this street fashion, so I wore flipflops almost all the time in front of them.

  Anyway, after the guards opened the door, I stalked into Phobos’ new home, my flipflops making noise. The guards were afraid of disobeying me, because I had high status now, though some of them, who were in Selena’s clique, called me “whore” behind my back.

  “Hello,” I greeted Phobos with an easy smile.

  Phobos slowly straightened himself from a curled position on a bed. He swayed a little as he sat up.

  “How are you doing today, doll?” I asked, sitting beside him like a friend, because I had grown fond of him after taking a few sips from him in the past weeks.

  He flinched, not wanting me to get too close to him, even though he was two heads taller and could tower over me.

  “Not good,” he said, his violet eyes all puffy. Obviously, he’d been crying.

  “Is it wise to sit that close to the terror god?” Pyrder asked, his brows furrowing in concern.

  Both Pyrder and Alaric braced their strong legs open and loomed over Phobos and me before Phobos’ bed, ready to grab him and punch him should he look at me wrong.

  Reysalor needed to work with Lorcan on something—they always schemed together anyway—so they hadn’t escorted me on this pleasure trip.

  I laughed at Pyrder’s concern. “Phobos is harmless as a flower, aren’t you, Phobos?” I pressed my palm against his face fondly, and he cringed out of my reach.

  “Please don’t drink from me today, Cass,” he whimpered, which made me feel like a monster. “I don’t feel well. I didn’t sleep last night.”

  “Why?” I asked with a frown. “What’s on your mind, Phobos? What’s bothering you?”

  He glanced at me through his thick lashes. Though he was terror incarnate, he was also a knockout god. “There’re a lot of things in my mind. Mostly, I’m concerned for my life.”

  “Really?” I inched closer to him, and he inched back, his arms tightly wrapping around his knees, his large hands ready to fend me off.

  I didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable, so I stopped advancing on him.

  “Did you intentionally lie to me, Phobos?” I asked. “You told us we couldn’t kill you. Now you’re saying I can actually kill you? Is that it? Can you tell me how?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said, trying to hide the resentment and bitterness in his beautiful, godly voice. I bet he was taking great pains to appear meek. “You can’t kill a god at my level. No one can.” Some arrogance sank into his tone.

  “Then, why are you concerned for your life?” I asked.

  He tried to not look at me the way a smart person looks down at an idiot.

  “It’s not healthy for me to be locked up in a small, confined place,” he said, mopping a tear from the corner of his eye with the back of his hand. “I have claustrophobia, Cass. I won’t survive this.”

  I’d been locked up in a cage for over a decade, and my cage was much worse than his small room.

  “You’ll get used to this new life,” I said, biting my lip, feeling sorry for him. “This is for your own good and for the good of the world. I can’t just set you loose and let you walk around inspiring terror.”

  I sounded like my mother, who believed that I was the worst monster ever. And now we locked up the God of Terror, believing he was the monster.

  How was I better than Jezebel?

  A wave of self-loathing and confusion surged in me.

  I stood up. I couldn’t deal with this.

  “I’m bored to tears, Cass,” Phobos said. “There’s no entertainment here, and I’m all alone. I’ve never felt so weak and miserable.” He trained his big, violet eyes on me. They were no longer vicious but full of pleading. “I need energy drinks, too.”

  I blinked. “But you’re a god.”

  He sent me a baleful look. “I need to eat, just like you.”

  “You want food?” I asked. “I can make an arrangement.”

  “Not that kind of food! I need to drink from the living beings’ fear.”

  My thumb rubbed my chin. “Well—”

  “For fuck’s sake, you’ve been a psychopath and a murderer since the beginning of your existence,” Alaric growled at Phobos. “And now you’re preying on Cass’s soft heart and her inexperience with the world? How many innocents died at your hands?”

  The image of the Manhattan skyline in fire and smoke flashed before my eyes.

  I also remembered when Phobos had poured poison down my throat and spoke with amusement about raping and dissecting me. He hadn’t showed the slightest remorse or empathy.

  “There are no innocents,” Phobos said. “You know that as much as I do, demigod. You killed tens of thousands of beings too. Your hands aren’t any less red.”
r />   “You’re a bad actor, Phobos,” Alaric said in disgust. “Quit your performance before Cass. She wasn’t born yesterday. She might feel sorry for you, but she knows she can’t set you free. You’re the God of Terror. You get high from striking fear into every mortal’s and immortal’s heart. You’re wasting your time acting like a pussy.”

  Phobos’ eyes glowed dark violet. His tears were gone, and viciousness emanated out of his pores like sheets of rain. A wave of terror vibrated in the air, slashing against everyone within the range, except me since I was immune to his godly power.

  Muscles twisted on Alaric’s and Pyrder’s faces, and the guards outside the room groaned as they dropped to their knees.

  “Stop it, Phobos,” I warned.

  He stilled, and the shockwave of terror faded. “Sorry, Cass, I didn’t mean it. I got emotional. The demigod always riles me up. He’s crude and he always brought out the worst in me. You should not hang out with him. He’s a bad influence.”

  Alaric laughed. “Yeah, you’re one to talk.”

  Phobos wiped his tear again.

  “I’m not going to drink from you today,” I sighed.

  He gazed at me hopefully like a puppy, a teardrop still glinting on his long eyelashes.

  “To be honest with you, Phobos, the more I drink from you, the colder and crueler I become,” I said, glancing at Alaric and Pyrder. And they looked surprised and suddenly alarmed. I hadn’t revealed to them the side effect of taking energy from the terror god. “They say you are what you eat. I’ve taken too much of your terror essence into me and it’s kind of turned me into a bitch sometimes.”

  “You don’t want to be the meanest bitch, Cass,” Phobos said enticingly. “You don’t want to end up like me. You’re still young. I’m up to no good. Even my mother said so.” His eyes softened as he mentioned his mother. “You know my mother is the Goddess of Love, right?”

  “Yep,” I said, jerking a thumb at Alaric. “He told me you’re Aphrodite’s love child. Your dad cuckolded his butt-ugly brother Hephaestus, and you’re the product of their unlawful banging.”