Dirty Deeds: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Bonds of Blood Book 3)

by Cate Corvin

  Tori’s lips twisted. “They were going to let her suffer instead of healing her. We could get more if she had a voice. Will, would you mind-?”

  My blood brother squeezed her hand and silently left the room.

  “Does Thraustila know he’s not really the king?” Her voice had turned acidic.

  Apolline sat down on the cot like her bones had turned to jelly.

  “Oh. I see you didn’t know that. Maybe it was something he didn’t deign to share with someone he was using, or someone who sold out her own classmates so easily. But you’ve been duped hard, Apolline. He was never the king. You were always just sustenance.”

  Apolline’s hands fluttered in the air in frustration. She mouthed words, and we all got the gist of her question: then who is?

  Tori smiled. “I am. Interesting where your priorities lie. Most people would probably be more concerned with the fact that they’re pieces of shit, but you just want to know who you should’ve been cozying up to.”

  Apolline stared at her in disbelief, shaking her head.

  “We’ll be back with Mater Dolorum. Then you’re going to talk until we’re sure you’ve spilled every last bean.” Tori waved the baggie. “This is going to Dolorum, as well. I have no idea what they’re planning on doing with you, but if you need it, she’ll be the one to ration it out.”

  Apolline slammed her fists on the top of her thighs, mouth open in a soundless scream, and Tori walked away without a second glance.

  She didn’t stop until we’d left the cell block for a nearby atrium. Fountains gurgled, and she sat on the rim of one, patting the spot next to her. “I hate being an asshole,” she admitted. Càel took up a solid stance at her side but didn’t sit down. He hadn’t relaxed since we’d arrived in Libra.

  I took the spot next to her and ran a hand over my face. I still looked like Sura Enver, and hopefully that wouldn’t change. “In Apolline’s case, being an asshole is a requisite part of dealing with her.”

  “You don’t need to feel sorry.” Càel looked down at her with nothing but affection. The Morrígna and his view of questioning was likely a completely different ballgame from what Tori had done. Apolline would’ve been in pieces if we’d let Morgrainne into her cell. “It’s your right to question her.”

  “Well… I can’t help it.” Tori straightened her back, drawing herself out of her slump. “I feel for her, in a way. She’s done shitty things, but so have I… and she doesn’t even have a real singer even after all that. I kinda get it. She just wanted someone to love her that much.”

  I slid my hand over her thigh, testing the boundaries of affection. She’d happily slept with me, but I hadn’t been taking my chances on the simple sensation of just feeling her near me. I didn’t want to find out the hard way she’d reject me again. “What Apolline did was probably not just wanting love, Tori. She enjoys hurting people. Satan knows she spent enough time tormenting Will when they were younger, and he wasn’t the only one she did that to.”

  “Still.” She leaned against me, the length of her body warm against mine. “I never wanted to be like them.”

  I glanced at Càel and raised an eyebrow, cocking my head at the door. He touched Rhianwen’s arm, and the Morrígna began drifting back towards the cell block.

  Càel himself knelt in front of Tori and touched her face. “We’ll come for you when the witch has healed Apolline.”

  Her hand sneaked up to cover his. “No flaying.”

  “No flaying,” Càel agreed, and Tori finally smiled. It was a small one, but better than the worry carved into her face.

  “Or gizzard-stringing.”

  “Don’t ask too much of me, shíorghrá.”

  Tori’s smile grew wider, and Càel got up and followed his sisters.

  She took a deep breath and glanced at me, then licked her lips. Càel would be good for days after feeding on her, but he’d taken some of the blood she’d taken from Will. She’d be hungry again.

  The last thing we needed was for her to be weak when we needed her to be strong. “Come on. Let’s go find a nice, private broom closet.”

  Tori allowed me to pull her to her feet. “You’ve got a strange idea of what constitutes a fun date, Suraziel.”

  “I learned from the worst. When we’re done taking care of our little problem, I’ll learn how to do it better.” She wove her fingers into mine as I found a private sitting room off the atrium, a little study meant for older students. “See? I’m already figuring it out. This is way better than a closet.”

  I prodded her inside and shut the door behind us. Tori crossed her arms over her chest when I sank onto the leather sofa and beckoned her over. “Come sit on Satan’s lap and tell me what you want for Yuletide.”

  “Santa,” she said. “The word you’re looking for is Santa.”

  I patted my lap. “Look. It’s nice and toasty and waiting for you.”

  Tori took a few steps closer, and finally exhaled and climbed up onto my lap. I grabbed her hips and settled her firmly over me. She didn’t pull away.

  “Take this off.” She ran her fingers over my cheek. “It’s weird.”

  “This is how you met me, woman.”

  “It doesn’t look like you anymore.” She closed her eyes and touched me. “It doesn’t even feel like you now. Whoever made it really knew what they were doing.”

  “Yeah. Queen Mab kinda owed Sitri a favor, so it’s not your average glamour.” I let the spell peel away. It’d be glorious when I finally got to rip the thing off me for good and let it rot in a corner somewhere. Or maybe I’d give it to Lula and let her wreak havoc.

  “Queen Mab?” Tori sputtered. “Jesus Christ, Suraziel, nobody even knows where to find her, let alone wring a favor out of her.”

  “Never underestimate a desperate demon. He’s got his ways.” I let my head roll back, exposing most of my throat to her. “Now, are you going to have a snack or not?”

  She swallowed, her throat working. “I don’t want you to be weakened.”

  “You, Will, and Càel gave me enough power to light up New York for a week straight. I think I’ll be fine.” That, and I really wanted to feel the bite of her fangs in my skin. “You’re the one we can’t afford to lose.”

  Tori looked away. “That again. I’m starting to feel like I’m more breakable than I’ve ever been. I don’t just want to be a leech on everyone, either.”

  I shifted under her, my stomach doing a slow flip when she matched my movements subconsciously. “Victoria the Oblivious, I’m going to make this clear to you. We all really like it when you bite us. In fact, you should be worried if we didn’t want you to get bitey. Your mouth makes dicks hard.”

  Case in point. Tori shifted on me again, her pupils dilating as she took me in. Both hunger and lust battled in her gaze.

  “I just don’t want you to feel like walking meals,” she grumbled.

  “Believe me, I’ve never felt less like a meal in my life.” I slid my hand around the back of her neck, and she allowed me to pull her in.

  I felt the tip of her nose against my neck, then her lips. She kissed me, a long, slow kiss, and flicked her tongue against my pulse.

  These horrendous jeans were feeling uncomfortably tight, which she didn’t help by rocking her hips forward on me. My breath caught, hands tightening on her neck, and Tori let out a low groan against my neck.

  “Before I do this… Suraziel, you already know you’re one of my bloodsingers.” She raised her head to look me in the eye, cupping my face. My heart had taken up an unsteady rhythm in my chest. She’d thrown it out so casually at Heartfall, and I hadn’t allowed myself to examine it too closely. Hadn’t allowed any hope. “Càel said we had a choice. We don’t have to answer the call.”

  Fuck. This was it.

  She was going to tell me I was super delicious, thanks for the dick and dinner, let’s do it again sometime.

  All the time spent wondering if she’d finally come around to loving a demon was about to come crashing d
own on my head. Guess I should’ve known better.

  “We already bared our hearts to each other. We’ve fucked each other over and somehow got past that.” She chewed her lip for a moment. “I still have the seal of Solomon with our blood on it. I’m going to destroy it the first chance I get.”

  Great. She didn’t even want my blood.

  “I don’t want it, and I don’t need it. We met in the middle and made things right. You should be free from that binding.”

  I let my hands relax. I didn’t want sex with Tori if she didn’t feel the same way I felt for her. An incubus, turning down sex. Who’d’ve thunk it?

  “You don’t have to say any more.” My voice came out in a rasp. What was this terrible feeling, like my chest was being ripped apart?

  Oh, right. Heartbreak. Never thought I’d experience that in my lifetime.

  “But I need to,” she said, forcing me to look back at her. “I need to just… openly say things.”

  I took in the big, summer-honey eyes and the cute spray of freckles across her nose, drinking her up. “I get what you’re saying, Tori. I wouldn’t be the one to make you choose something you didn’t want.”

  Her expression shifted into a frustrated frown. “What? I’m not good at being all sappy, but I feel like I should in case… well, you know, just in case. It might be my last chance to do it.”

  The rip in my chest stopped widening. “You’re not telling me you don’t want the bloodsong?”

  She stared at me. “No, you ridiculous incubus. I’m trying to tell you I love you, but being super romantic isn’t one of my strong points-”

  I cut her off with a kiss. That hole resealed itself like it had never existed. The void in my center was gone.

  When I was still inexperienced and I’d never left Hell, the Prince of Lust always taught us there was nothing else out there. We existed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to make others ravenous with desire, and to feed on that need.

  I’d never really understood love as a concept until I came to the mortal plane. Until I met Tori, and to a certain extent, Will.

  I didn’t allow her to deepen the kiss, afraid she’d be consumed by my nature when she needed clarity. Tori’s eyes widened when I broke away.

  “I love you, too. Actually, no, I don’t feel like that’s good enough. I love you more than anything in Hell or on earth, Victoria the Misleading.”

  Her lips twitched into a smile. “Yeah, I probably could’ve started that better. But I’ve got lots of time to practice on you.”

  “We’ve got forever to practice.” I gripped her chin, holding her in place. “Shall we consummate this grand occasion?”

  “Well, duh,” she said, and lowered her mouth to my neck. I couldn’t hold back my own groan of need when she laved her tongue along my throat.

  Her lips moved against my neck, tickling the sensitive skin. “Have I ever told you how tasty you are? You taste like caramel.”

  “This snack is available twenty-four-seven.” My hands found their way back to her thighs and hips, massaging my way up her body. Tori moaned, and a fang scraped my throat. “Do it.”

  Her breath touched my ear as she inhaled and exhaled deeply, drinking me in, and then the tiniest point of pain zipped through me as she bit down.

  My hips jerked up, driving my hard cock against her, but these fucking jeans stopped me in my tracks. I felt her breasts pressed against my chest, nipples hardened to little points, which wasn’t helping the situation.

  She sucked hard, and I went light-headed for a moment as my blood drained from my body. Well, some of it; most of it was still situated firmly under Tori’s ass.

  I unbuttoned her jeans and slipped my thumb under the band, delving beneath the silky underwear to find her clit. She exhaled through her nostrils, her moan vibrating through my throat.

  My thumb traced slow circles around the nub and she pushed into me, riding my hand as she drank. Her lust was like a perfume I drank in, feeling it infuse me even while she took my vital essence.

  I allowed a touch of my influence reach out to her. Just a tendril, enough to stroke her innermost thoughts and desires and inflame them.

  The underwear between us were soaked, and as soon as her fangs were out of my neck, I was pushing these jeans down and filling her all the way up. My balls ached with the need to come in her as my own baser nature took over.

  Took over so much, in fact, that the first vibration that traveled through the building didn’t bother me in the slightest.

  The only thing I wanted was for Tori to come while she drank from me, her wetness like a taunt. She ground against my cock and fingers, her thrusts growing harder and more erratic, and I felt a warm trail of blood drip over my shoulder.

  The building rumbled again, like a monster buried deep under Libra was groaning as it woke.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, my rational self yelled at me to get up. Something terrible was about to happen.

  Tori shuddered, her body arching against me. The burst of energy as she orgasmed, running her tongue over my neck as she bucked, filled me like lightning.

  “Oh my god, Suraziel,” she breathed, licking blood from the corners of her mouth. “I could’ve sworn the ground actually shook.”

  I picked her up as gently as possible, willing myself to hold it together. She was almost luminous with demonic blood. “That’s because the ground did shake.”

  I’d fucked up by touching her with my essence. Everything else had faded to the background, and I’d been caught up in it, too.

  Tori’s eyes widened. “Thraustila.”

  I nodded grimly. She buttoned her jeans, hands almost a blur, and bolted to the door.

  We heard Will’s shouts when she flung it open.

  Then the building’s moorings convulsed in a spastic wave, roaring around us, and the real screaming began.

  Sixteen

  Tori

  A freshman slayer bolted past us, his face and hair caked with plaster dust.

  Alarms blared overhead, a high-pitched shriek that was almost sickening in its intensity.

  “Will! Càel!” I ducked under the tilted door frame with Suraziel on my heels. It groaned and slanted sideways just as we ran out, blocking off the room where I’d been so wrapped up in my own feelings, I’d forgotten the world around me.

  The world that was currently ripping loose from its moorings.

  “Tori.” Will was suddenly at my side, and Càel before me. The Morrígna were nowhere in sight.

  “What the hell is happening?” I whirled as something crashed down the hallway. A beam had broken loose from the ceiling and collapsed to the marble floor, shattering the tiles.

  It had to be Thraustila. Who else would be brazen enough to take on an entire slayer institution?

  “My Maker,” Càel said grimly. “He’s come for Apolline.”

  Something else crashed in the distance. The whole academy was coming down around our ears.

  “Why would he come for…” I realized why as soon as I’d begun the thought. Apolline had seen everything Thraustila was doing. If he wasn’t attempting to rescue her out of love, it was because he intended to silence her for good.

  “This is demonic energy.” Suraziel took a deep breath. “Smells like Belial’s kind.”

  I couldn’t be around silver now, but I had blessed iron daggers. I pulled them out, comforted by the heavy weight in my palms. With tooth, claw, and dagger, I was going to fuck his shit up. “Do you sense any actual demons here?”

  Suraziel’s brow wrinkled. It was hard to believe that only minutes ago, he’d been biting his lip with lust. “No.”

  “He has an infernal siege engine-” Càel’s words were interrupted by a stark, hair-raising howl. “And hellhounds.”

  God knew how many fucking hellhounds this asshole had imported.

  “Come on. There are too many young slayers here. We need to find the sanctum.” I took a deep breath, tasting dust and the faintest tinge of sulfur in the
air… and blood. Someone had been hurt already.

  We found the spiral staircase in the middle of Libra, and Will paused. “Up. The sounds are coming from upstairs.”

  Three levels up, to be exact. We emerged from the shaking depths to total chaos.

  Slayers and hellhounds clashed, screams and howls mingling in a roar that drowned out the sirens. Blood splattered the white walls, cut through the dust on terrified, furious faces, filled the air in a copper haze.

  My veins hummed from what I’d taken from Sura. I lunged forward to drive a blade deep into a hellhound’s side before it could rip out Pheric Grant’s throat, and Càel smashed another one into a wall, tearing its ribcage open and ripping out its heart.

  Suraziel held down my hellhound so I could do the deed.

  Its blood coated my hands like hot, wet gloves, and another scream caught my attention. Will kicked a vampire off a shaking girl, driving a knife down into his throat.

  After that, everything became a blur of blood.

  I was dimly aware of my singers, their songs rising to a dull, steady thump, and the feeling of death under my hands.

  We worked our way steadily towards the Great Hall, following the vibrations under our feet. Ermengol perched on top of a fountain, loading a crossbow with silver bolts with almost mechanical precision and coolness. Two hellhounds sniffed around the base of the fountain, snarling and leaving silvery strings of drool where they walked.

  She took aim at a dark-skinned vampire covered in whorling tattoos, and I recognized him as he looked up at her and bared his teeth: Iskandar.

  “Not her!” I barked, and he flinched, looking incredulous.

  Càel grabbed a hellhound by the throat and threw it twenty feet. It smashed into a column and fell to the floor, its skull cracked open to reveal pulsing black ichor.

  Will whistled, and the other hellhound turned, sensing easier prey. Its exposed muscles gleamed wetly as it lunged at him, jaws open.

  And impaled itself on Will’s sword. When the hell had he gotten a sword?

  Ermengol hadn’t so much as broken a sweat. She aimed the crossbow at Iskandar, one eye squinted. “He’s mine!” I shouted, dashing across the room and sliding to a halt in front of him.