by Cate Corvin
Càel’s fingers against my ass, using my own wetness to lubricate me, almost made me come again from touch alone. The pressure of Suraziel’s large cock already had my blood up, but Càel gripped his and gently pushed into me.
Once he was firmly inside, he pinioned my arms and pulled me upright, holding me in place. Suraziel leveraged upwards and Càel thrust forward, both filling me at the same time.
My head fell back against Càel’s shoulder. He lowered his head, finding the two perfect points and caressing me with fangs.
I shuddered when he bit down, drawing my blood and Will’s from my veins. Every time he drove deeper into my ass he took a draught, and Suraziel sat up, his lips wrapping around one of my nipples.
The incubus saliva meant nothing hurt, but everything felt good- no, better than good. Every sensation was like I was feeling it for the first time. It didn’t even strike me as odd that Càel and Suraziel would share me like this; they were both on the same side, from the Shadowed World, where the mores of love and lust were perceived differently from how slayers were taught to think.
In my old life, this would’ve been the height of Really Bad Behavior. With them, it was perfectly natural to give in.
Càel growled as he drank, body arching against me. He didn’t want to be gentle. I felt his need in the way he kept me trapped between them, hips slamming against my ass and pushing me towards Suraziel.
I wasn’t sure where they ended and I began, or how long I was trapped between them. Blue shimmer rippled over Suraziel’s skin, and every time I came, the scar on his stomach grew lighter.
The fifth or sixth time I shuddered between them, biting down on the incubus’s shoulder and taking a mouthful of blood, I felt the first tinge of tiredness. Not a mental tiredness, but a deep, satisfying physical exhaustion as the incubus high began to wear off.
Suraziel kissed me, keeping his mouth firmly closed. “No more,” he said raggedly. “You’ll keep going till you’re dead, believe me.”
His cock was throbbing hard inside me, like he’d held off on coming every time I did. Càel released my arms to grip my waist, slamming forward again. This time I felt a touch of pain with the pleasure.
“One last time, Suraziel,” I said, leaning forward to grind my clit against him as my hips jerked forward. “Both of you.”
It was like they were mind-readers, somehow leaning into me in the perfect position to wring another climax out of my tired body, and Suraziel’s cock jerked. He bit his lip when he came, letting out another one of those groans that seemed like it was perfectly designed to sound like sex incarnate.
Hell, it probably was.
I pushed myself onto Càel, offering my neck to him. When he bit down his hips pushed up, filling me to the hilt. I felt him come as he sucked my neck, lapping up a stray trickle of blood with a satisfied grunt.
They were gentle in untangling from me, arranging me between them like some sort of precious doll. “You’re animals,” I breathed. “Total animals.”
I knew I should go sit quietly in a corner and suck some blood and think about my life. In the span of one night, we’d killed Percival, saved Mom, banished Sitri, and found out I was vampire royalty. Then there was Will’s confession of love, and my rush of emotion towards him… and getting railed by my other two bloodsingers immediately thereafter.
All in a day’s work, really. It was super convenient not needing to sleep. At this rate, I was going to explore the full range of sexual configurations with three dicks before the end of winter.
“You love it, admit it.” Suraziel played with a lock of my hair, twining it around a shimmering finger. He was preternaturally gorgeous when his demon juju was firing on all cylinders.
“She has a deviant taste,” Càel mused. His face split into an evil grin as he stroked my hip. “What more could I have asked for?”
“I do love it.” I let out a happy sigh. All I needed was Will, and I could stay here forever and forget all about the murderous asshole sitting on the throne I didn’t want.
Càel rested his head on my arm. “Sunrise is soon.”
Now that the roar of lust had faded, I felt the tug of my Maker in my chest. “I feel Rhianwen. They’ll be here soon.”
“Should we stop acting like degenerates and get dressed?” Suraziel frowned at the ceiling. “I hate clothes.”
“Nice to see you’re back with us, Sura. We’ll have all the time in the world for debauchery later.” I propped myself up in the tangle of limbs and looked at the bathroom door. It was a whole fifteen feet away. It might as well have been on another planet. How was I supposed to walk on my own two barely-functional legs after what they’d done to me? “I kinda want to shower before we speak to the Morrígna and wake Mom up.”
A hot shower after sex sounded great. It was just yet another thing I could do to avoid thinking about the implications of suddenly becoming a monarch of a throne I had no real right to take.
Luckily for me, Càel had my best interests at heart. He scooped me up from the bed and carried me to the bathroom, where I had my next shock. The Paladin hadn’t just upgraded their kitchen. This was five-star resort luxury, with a tiled walk-in shower and waterfall showerheads.
“This guy’s gotta be loaded,” I said, closing my eyes as Càel worked shampoo through my hair. Another pair of hands ran over my breasts and stomach and I almost jolted, opening my eyes to see Suraziel giving me a quick grin.
Hell, at least they were both getting along well enough to screw me at the same time and shower with me. Maybe having bloodsongs for all three of them wouldn’t be the disaster I’d been anticipating.
“The Paladin’s family has been around for a very long time,” Càel said. His hands had moved from my scalp to my shoulders. Honestly, I didn’t deserve these guys. “I met the third one back in 1642.”
And here he was, casually dropping timebombs on my head. 1642, indeed. Someday I’d be the same way, name-dropping important vampires from this era five hundred years from now.
Unless Thraustila cut my second life short before I could take full advantage of it.
“How do they know so much about us?” I pushed a button, and the tiles under my feet began to heat up. Swanky.
Suraziel shrugged one shoulder, working his way over my thighs. “It really is their job to know things. The Paladins have always had a vested interest in the Shadowed World. He’s got a Legionnaire bound to him as his servant, there’s definitely an angel around here somewhere-”
“An angel?” I spluttered, taking a mouthful of water without thinking.
Angels hadn’t been seen in millennia. What kind of crazy-house was this?
“Yeah, I definitely smell an angel.” Suraziel shrugged again, like this was no big deal. “Haven’t seen it, though. That’s definitely who he got his tattoos from. I’m more concerned about Arkomoch, myself.”
“Why’s that?” I rinsed off under the waterfall, then began returning the favor to Càel. There were few things more enjoyable than just running my hands over every inch of his body. And Suraziel was up next. Calm down, pervy hands.
“He knows who and what I am, and there’s no way they don’t know what Thraustila’s up to. All they have to do is make the connection and the Paladin has every right to imprison me while I’m on his property.”
What connection? I stared at Suraziel, barely paying attention to what I was doing with my hands.
It clicked like a bolt of lightning in my head.
“Incubus spit,” I said, my brain practically sizzling behind my eyes. “Sitri’s moratorium on incubus fluids was because he’s part of Thraustila’s dust ring.”
That explained the glazed look in Lydia Hurst’s eyes the day I’d found her high as hell on pixie dust. I’d thought it strange at the time, because pixie dust didn’t cause people to devolve into mindless zombies.
He’d created a dust that gave people the high without the dangerous zip of energy that accompanied it. Problem was, it turned them into langu
orous junkies who’d eventually die of starvation when they no longer cared about eating or sleeping, only getting their next dust fix.
Sitri alone controlled the incubi and succubi. Thraustila had enslaved an entire army of pixies. By distributing the designer dust, they’d have their own private network of people to feast on for sex and blood.
“My Maker employs his own alchemist, Gwendoline.” Càel draped an arm around my shoulders. “The incubus and I have discussed this in private. I’m confident he had no part in contributing to Thraustila’s experiments.”
I had no idea when Càel and Suraziel had had time to discuss this, but I was still dazed by the revelation. “That’s why you were assigned to Will. Sitri wanted one of his own in New York.”
Suraziel nodded, water splashing off his horns. “I was a redundancy. A few of my brothers and sisters are already there.”
“Percival had some of the tainted dust on his desk.” I closed my eyes. “Who wants to bet he’s been giving that shit to Mom?”
Fuck, this was going to be a mess. It’d been hard enough watching her with human medications, let alone a custom-mix of infernal and Faerie drugs.
“Sitri’s had eyes on a candidate for years now. As soon as Percival summoned a demon, he answered the call, seeing a way in.” Suraziel scowled. “I wasn’t there for the summoning. I had no idea Will’s mother was the catalyst. I was just told to attend Libra and stay close to him.”
“I don’t think Will would blame you for something you had no control over,” I said gently. “But we need to destroy the dust. People are going to die over it, and he’s been freely feeding it to slayers.”
I had the baggie of dust in my jacket pocket. If necessary, I would use it to wean Mom off the drugs. Who knew what the withdrawals would look like? They could potentially kill her.
Then the rest would be destroyed.
“I have no problem with destroying it.” Suraziel’s eyes flickered with fresh, strong hellfire. “I want to get my siblings out of there. They won’t be free from Sitri’s court, but at least they won’t be treated like livestock for some vampire asshole’s pixie dust operation anymore.”
“What about you? You’re free from Sitri’s court? You’ve mentioned finding the way out…” As I spoke, I remembered one very important detail from last night. A sigil carved into the flesh of Will’s arm. “Ah, fuck.”
Suraziel smiled grimly. “Fuck is right. Will’s body is the brand-new resting place of a demon, and we’re irrevocably bound.”
Càel squeezed my shoulders gently. “Why is this a terrible thing? He will now live for as long as you do. You don’t need to fear his bloodsong dying out.”
I frowned as Suraziel rinsed himself. “What do you mean? I thought the blood-to-blood binding meant that Will was tied to Sitri’s court.” Which is why no one who wanted to live long ever carved an infernal sigil into their own skin. An amulet kept the binder from joining the demon, like I’d done when I first discovered what Suraziel really was.
Suraziel turned off the water and grabbed a towel that he wrapped around me. He was frowning now, too. “Yes. Will is now a part of Sitri’s court. He effectively tied himself to me.”
“Oh, fuck me. He’s not going to… become an incubus or something, is he?”
Suraziel shook his head, then nodded, and finally raised his hands. “No. I don’t think so.”
“He did tie himself to you,” Càel said patiently. “He also bound you to him. And who is Will bound to, besides you?”
“Me,” I said slowly. “The bloodsong. Which I feel for all three of you, so… you’re both anchored here by multiple people.”
“Not just that, shíorghrá. Lilith was one of the First Creators. Her Gift trumps Sitri’s claim, since he’s so far below Her. Only Satan himself could contest it.”
Suraziel’s eyes had lit up as Càel spoke. “And Satan wouldn’t. He’d know better than to fuck with another First.”
I struggled for a moment with my warring emotions. I swear, if I had one more revelation tonight, I was going to slam some whisky with my blood and make myself sleep. “So he’s safe.”
“Hell, he’s better than safe.” Suraziel caught me in a big bear-hug. “You’ve just netted yourself an eternity of Will.”
“Wow,” I said breathlessly, letting Suraziel crush me. “That’s just what I’ve always wanted.”
Twelve
Càel
I’d gone into this expecting to break some bones, maybe indulge in a little light flaying.
I hadn’t expected them to be decent people. Not after what they’d done to the one I’d eternally love.
But here they were, ready to skin themselves alive for mo shíorghrá, and that was no less than I would do myself.
I let out a sad sigh as Victoria pulled her clothes on. Not that she didn’t look great in them, but it should be a crime to cover up a body like that.
She gave me a wry smile. “I’m sure they’ll be coming off sooner than I expect.”
They’d better be.
My singer touched her chest. “They must be close.”
I felt the impending rise of the sun and the pulsing bloodsong in my skull, backed by two lighter melodies, but I trusted her judgment. The tug of my Maker was far away, thank Lilith. His presence was the last one I wanted to feel now.
Even with all our secrets out in the open- that Victoria was more than just my singer, but my queen- the thought of bringing her anywhere near Thraustila made me see red.
The incubus had gone back to his room to salvage clean clothes and make himself presentable for greeting the Morrígna. Victoria herself had tugged on jeans and a strappy sort of top that showed much of her delectable neck and shoulders. I was pleased that she no longer felt the cold and had no need of a jacket to hide her form.
“Come here, shíorghrá.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, veins still humming with the blood I’d taken from her while she was in the throes of infernal lust. Victoria adjusted her shirt, and padded over on silent feet, standing between my knees.
She knew what bothered me without needing to ask. “They already know.” She tried on a smile, but it was pale next to her usual expression. “We don’t need to… discuss it any further.”
“Unfortunately, we do.” The rest of her smile faded. I wished I could just take her back to bed and let her forget it all, but that wasn’t life. Life was accepting the bullshit, and making it work for you. “Now that you know, our plans will be changing.”
“I don’t want to be treated like I’m made of glass,” she said sharply.
“A slayer has never taken the throne from an elder vampire.” I remained patient with her. She was still coming to terms with the ramifications of her title. “Never.”
“Can’t I just pass it on to someone else?” she asked, a hint of desperation in her tone. “Rhianwen, maybe?”
I shook my head. In any other circumstances, Rhianwen would’ve been the one to guide her into her new life and educate her on vampire Law. I’d done what I could, but with all the moving pieces constantly shifting, going over the finer points had fallen to the wayside. “Blood is the only way, Victoria.”
“She’d have to kill me,” she said, and her face fell when I nodded. “Well, that’s horseshit.”
I wanted to agree, but she’d won the throne fairly. Thraustila should’ve finished what he started instead of tormenting my sister to death if he wanted it for himself.
Rhianwen was the only one who’d escaped the festivities that night completely unscathed. It was how we always worked: Eluned, Morgrainne, and I would take the brunt of our Maker’s wrath when we opposed him, and Rhianwen would stay out of it, remaining whole to care for us afterwards.
Now it would be only Morgrainne and I, but I would have both Victoria and Rhianwen when our Maker was done doing his best to dismember us.
But this time, when he realized how much was at stake, he might go all the way and rip our heads from our bodies, effecti
vely ending our second lives. All the better to leave Victoria defenseless and take the throne by blood once again.
“You might warm to it in time,” I said, touching her soft cheek. “You might not. But you will have a family gathered around you, and we’ll never leave you to bear the burden alone.”
I got a real smile this time, but her eyes were downcast. “What about Mom? There’s no way she can live in a vampire court.”
“That I have no answer for.” As much as I wanted to solve everything for her, there were some loose ends I hadn’t considered. My siblings and I had easily stepped away from our human lives when we were Made. Times were different, then. It was kill or be killed.
Well, maybe not that much different.
Victoria took a deep breath. “They’ve arrived. I’ll talk to Mom today and figure it out. There’s gotta be something I can do to make things right. I’m just worried that fucker was feeding her the tainted dust… and if that’s true, I have no idea how to fix it.”
A pink tear trickled down her cheek. I brushed it away with my thumb and stood to kiss her. “That’s something we’ll handle together. You’re not alone in this, Victoria.”
“I know,” she said, closing her eyes. Her black lashes fanned across her cheeks. “I know. Let’s go talk to Mom Number Two. Maybe she knows something that’ll help.”
We stepped into the hall and met Suraziel exiting Will’s room. “He’s coming in a minute,” the incubus said.
I could almost feel Victoria vibrating with the need to say something. “Just let it out.”
“I bet I could make it a lot faster than a minute,” she blurted out, and sighed. “Okay. I feel a little better now.”
“Innuendo makes everything better.” As I spoke, I heard a door shut from a corridor away. They were too far away to catch their scent, but I knew my sisters had arrived. They’d just beaten the sun.
Will opened the door and stepped out, a look of surprise crossing his face before he schooled himself into a more neutral expression. Victoria reached out and took his hand. The bloodsong I felt through her was stronger now, though it didn’t overpower hers.