by Casey Lane
I sat back, causing her to turn her body to face me. “And what did you think of it?”
Sophie raised an eyebrow at me but I kept my eyes on Lula.
“It’s lovely. The forests are green year-round for some unimaginable reason. And the house is so large. Although I don’t imagine I would like to live there, I would have to have an excessive amount of servants.” At this, Dominique, one of the servants we employed, offered me a glass. I took it, offered it to Lula, and accepted the next glass.
Sipping the chardonnay, I watched the movement of her neck as the wine traveled down. The thralls in the room began to sing and dance, and Sophie clapped her hands, encouraging them.
“And what do you think of the people who live there?”
She frowned. “Well, I don’t expect I know much about them, except that there does seem to be a great deal of them. I couldn’t keep track of who was what, they were all running to and fro, and all those children…” She put her hand to her chest. “They ran through the house as if it they never saw a spot of soap in their life! I had a mind to run a bath for the whole lot and dump them all in it.” Grinning, she looked at Treveti, whose fangs were now deeply embedded into the base of Tasha’s neck. Her head was thrown to the side, and her moans were getting louder. “Although,” Lula continued, “I don’t think I would mind growing up in a place like that.”
She swallowed hard as Treveti straddled Tasha, who began to unbutton his pants, then she looked at Rowan, who was staring at her with darkened eyes.
“And how do you think you would control that many children, yourself?”
Lula blinked and turned back to me. “Well, a lot like that, you’d have to rule with a firm hand. Show them kindness, of course, but you would have to keep a stiff grip on their necks to show them that they are not a pack of rats, but live in a civilized world, even though they are so far out.”
I nodded, considering her words and ignoring the thrumming noise from Rowan.
“And if one of them tried to rebel?”
“Well, I expect you’d have to make an example of him, wouldn’t you?” She blinked her eyelashes at me. “And then show him mercy and compassion, so that he understands that he’s still a valued part of the community, if he behaves himself.”
Rowan stood up now and Lula pushed herself away from me. I frowned at Rowan but he sat between us, eyeing her hungrily. I clicked my tongue and stood up; he was already pulling down the top of her gown. I watched her as she stared at him, her eyes hungry, and he leaned towards her neck while his hands fondled her softly. When she took his hand and lowered it, I turned towards Sophie who was seated next to her favorite thrall, drinking freely. One of her other thralls lay across her lap and, giving in to the temptation to eat again, I straddled her. She smiled and bared her neck, but I opened her gown to reveal the biggest pair of breasts I ever saw. Growling, I lowered myself to them. Lily sighed behind me and turned to leave, but I grabbed her hand and looked up at her with darkened eyes. “Later.”
She smiled coyly and I let go of her wrist. “Wait for me in my room.” I looked towards the window and noted that dawn would be here soon. “I’ll be there shortly, but you won’t sleep in my bed.”
As soon as I entered the hallway, the smell of Adelade pulled at me so strong, that instead of going to Lily, I went for Adelade’s room. I could hear the throbbing of her heart, feel the vibration as it tumbled down the hallway to run up my feet and throughout my whole body. I stalked her slowly, making myself unseen as I descended down the hallway. I stood outside her door, my ear to the soft wood, my trembling hand on the knob.
It didn’t make a sound as I opened it and I stood for a moment, catching my breath, as I stared at her sleeping form. She was so innocent, her face childlike and trusting as she slept in the house of the ultimate predator.
I could see the stake tucked under her pillow, likely given her by Bennett. Good. He had warned her sufficiently.
And yet, the side of my mouth lifted at her naïveté. As if she could conquer the strigoi with a stroke of her stake. I could kill her with my pinky finger, her puny little arm held no strength against one such as I.
Her heartbeat picked up as if it knew that I was near, even though I was not visible to the eye. Her instincts were spot on. Her breathing increased and she even cried out, which drew me to the back end of the room for fear of scaring her further. I was worse than anything in her worst nightmare, my cursed living and the powers that I held, she was child’s play under my ministrations. As her blood called to me, I trembled against the back wall, willing my control over my strigoi. The fact that I had already eaten twice tonight wasn’t sufficient for her siren’s call, and I imagined the second it would take to mount her and partake of the most delicious claret known to strigoi. Blood lust: the kind kings went to war for, the real reason women were enslaved, and it bade me taste as she slept helplessly before me. It beaconed to me like I was the slave and it, my master.
I crept closer, step by step, until I could feel her breath on my face and see the trickle of sweat that sprinkled her lips. She moaned again, and I clasped the sheets of the bed. My senses reached out, uncontrollably, to feel her, to know her. I wanted to know what was in her mind, her heart. What caused her to sweat and to cry out, even though she lay unconscious?
She cared for her father, and hid her grief by working to the bone to clean my house. My house. Anger flooded through my body. My servants were given instructions that she was not to work, but to be served like royalty. She cared for Sophie and Lula, and even held a touch of concern for the people who served me, even though they treated her with disdain. She worried about them and their safety and felt that they treated her unfairly because of the rumors about her mother. I growled softly. They would be thoroughly punished, and made to bow at her feet for treating her such. I rarely lay a hand on my servants, but disobedience wouldn’t be tolerated, especially for one such as the daughter of Colleen.
She also held a secret, so deep and dark that I could not pull it from her. Intrigued, I touched her hand and a warmth traveled up my arm so quickly that I yanked my hand away. What demon magic was this?
She turned, suddenly facing me and my incisors descended as I watched the pulse at her neck beat. I breathed in deeply; it held the sweetest smell. I leaned closer and my nose was on her neck. Just a little taste would satisfy me, I only needed a thimble of her vitality. I brushed her hair away from her face and she mumbled in response. I rubbed her neck with my nose. Just a small taste, that’s all it would require to satisfy my strigoi, and she never need know.
“Detrand.”
I fell back onto the floor, revealing myself. I hadn’t even heard Sophie enter.
“What are you doing here?”
My annoyance spilled out, and my strigoi burst out of me. “Never get in between me and my prey.” I growled, low and menacing, and pounced on her.
“Detrand, you mustn’t taste her.”
“What do you know of it? Who are you to command me?” I was on top of her and she gripped my arms tightly, her back pressed to the floor. I leaned down, showing her my teeth, and I could feel her tremble in fear under me.
“You cannot yet control yourself. You would kill her.”
I fell upon her, choking, the realization that she was right flowing over me. My misgiving for killing Colleen’s daughter would rival only my betrayal to Sophie, and I forced my will over my strigoi. It fought me, and I turned to the only being who could help me. “Help,” the only words I could manage, as my strigoi threatened to overtake me again.
Suddenly I was being pulled into my room.
“Leave us.” Sophie motioned to Lily, who was gone in an instant, and then we were on the bed and she was straddling me and pulling off her nightgown. Before I knew it, I was inside her, tearing from her neck and gulping down the mercy she was offering to me. As I began to gather my mind, I realized the terrible situation that I’d put myself in; knew that this moment would forever change my re
lationship with Sophie, and that I’d betrayed her once again. And yet, I clasped her to me, pulling her blood deeper into my throat to chase away the demons as she cried out over me.
Chapter Five
I avoided Sophie for a fortnight, unable to thank her for saving me, and she went about business as usual, even though I could see the way her breathing trembled and the way her eyes lit up as I passed by her.
I avoided her in shame. I shouldn’t have gotten so close to Adelade and shouldn’t have used Sophie to control my strigoi. I was master of my own body, and would bend my strigoi to my will if it killed me. And so, I left the house as soon as the day waned, ignoring the call of Adelade’s blood, and I hunted throughout the night. I stalked the streets, consumed with controlling my strigoi. I ate when I wanted to eat, and I ate often, ignoring my strigoi, training it to follow my command.
I was always sick when I awoke in the evenings, but I hid away in the garden and cleaned it out before anyone else awoke.
Rowen kept me appraised of everything happening with the beings we controlled and the goings on in the household. He assured me that the servants were treating Adelade the way I’d instructed, or they would fall under his wrath, which wasn’t necessary, yet.
After practically throwing up from my third human of the night, I lay against the wall of the old tavern, his blood still on my face. Rowan knelt next to me and handed me his handkerchief.
“You can’t live like this, or you may as well be underground again.”
I grabbed his throat, pulling him close. “I’d rather taste the final death than live off rats and worms.”
“I agree.” He choked this out and I released him. He rubbed his neck as I dabbed at my lips.
“But you’re right. I can’t continue like this, and I haven’t yet discovered Agosto’s killer.” I got up and, giving him a moment for his throat to heal, I held my hand to him. “Do any of the Fae owe us a favor?”
He nodded, as I pulled him up. “Find them, and bring them to me when I return tonight.”
He nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
I made to move away but he cleared his throat.
“Yes, Rowan?”
“It’s just that, it’s been too long since you’ve arrived, and have yet to take over Agosto’s businesses. I’ve held them off for a while, but they grow restless. They don’t like paying the higher taxes and complain that it is an injustice. You need to attend to them, or the people will rebel and you will have a war on your hands. You must attend to this before you find his killer.”
My thoughts grew deep as I considered his words. “Finding Agosto’s killer is my priority. Tell them I will lower the tax when his killer is in my hands.”
I walked away, and could feel his eyes on me as I left. I turned back to him once more. “Tell Lula to meet me at the shifter’s home.”
Suddenly he was next to me. “I will not.”
“She is to meet me there, or I will return her to her mother.”
“Her mother hasn’t even come to visit her at the house, her fear keeps her at bay.”
I raised my eyebrow at him, and when he didn’t explain further I barked at him. “What of it, Rowan? Spit it out.”
“I don’t trust her in the shifter home. They’re unpredictable and careless, and she is weak compared to them.”
“So what?”
His hands fumbled with the buckle of his coat, but his eyes grew darker. “I won’t send her into that madhouse.”
I reached forward and pulled him closer to me so that my breath was on his face. “You will do as I command. Do not test me Rowan, or everything that you ever held dear will be ripped from your hands. I can control the shifters, and will protect her. But only because I hold an affection for Lula, who seems to actually long for your touch. I desire your happiness and so I allow you to hold her, but if you displease me, I will take her from you.”
The anger that rippled from his body affected my senses, even though I hadn’t released them, even as his eyes lowered to me. “Sir, she is mine.”
“As I allow it. Now go tell her to meet me at the shifter’s, or I will rip out your throat and hang your tongue from a pole on one of my ships. And then I will take Lula, and she will please me all the days of her father’s penance. After, she will beg me to keep her, but I will not, I will send her to the streets to beg her mother to let her return. Do you understand?”
He gagged, as his inability to defy me choked him, even as he wanted to tear out my throat.
“Go now.”
I paced outside the gate to the shifter mansion, waiting for Lula. When she arrived by one of our carriages, she rushed out and I commanded my driver to wait for our return.
I frowned. “Is that Adelade’s dress?” It was soft blue and plain, covering her from her neck to her toes. She nodded and I turned away from her and headed towards the gate. I would burn every single one of Adelade’s dresses. She deserved only the finest cut of cloth, not these rags, and I would instruct Sophie to train her how to dress properly.
I put my hand on the gate and turned to Lula. “I have a use for you. Are you willing?”
She nodded slowly and I opened the gate. I walked hastily towards the house. “I need you to keep your eyes on a shifter here.”
She gasped, and I grabbed her hand to keep up with me. “Did you think that there were only strigoi in this dark world? That other beings didn’t hide in the darkness?”
Her feet slipped and I pulled her to help her maintain her balance.
“I supposed there could be, but didn’t let myself think on it too much.”
“There is one, a scar next to his eye, looks like he’s never run a brush through his hair. I need you to watch him.” We were outside the door now and I paused before I knocked. There was a madness behind the door as shifters scrambled to prepare for my presence. “Can you do that? And report back to me once we leave.”
“What am I looking for?”
I knocked once. “His reaction.”
She nodded.
I grabbed her shoulder. “Anything that happens here, you stay far back, you understand?”
As soon as the door opened, Salina was on my arm. Her dress was cut low, and the tips of her small breasts showed through the thin material. “Welcome, Detrand. We’d been expecting you sooner. Why did you wait to come to me?” She reached up to kiss me but I turned my face away and walked into the house.
Several of the shifters had gathered in the open hallway, although some of the children were still being rounded up by their nursemaids in the upper halls.
The women curtsied to me, and a few of the men gave a low bow. One of them gave me a sly look and winked, while many of the other men stared at me stonily. My eyes passed on Derek only briefly. He contained his anger well, and although his hand was pressed tightly against the wall, his face was open and welcoming.
I turned towards Salina and my eyes followed the shape of her body. “How did you know that I would visit?”
She shrugged, and ran her hand up my chest as she circled me. “One hears things, Detrand, and we have the ears of the wolves.”
I turned towards the dining room and everyone followed behind me. The children, finally captured by their nannies, rushed under my feet playing tag. I led Salina to the table where we sat the last time. The room was large, warmed by a newly renewed fire, and the shifters filled it, staring at me with expectant looks. I yanked her up on the table and stood in between her legs.
She grinned, and pressed herself to me. “How can I be of service, Detrand?”
“I’ve come to announce that I will not be your alpha mate.”
She clicked her tongue and twirled her red hair around her finger. “I already knew that. It doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy certain benefits.” She bit her lip. “We could come to an arrangement, just like Agosto.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “Were you intimate with Agosto?”
She frowned. “Of course not.” Her hands traveled down my shi
rt and to the buckle of my pants. “But our arrangement doesn’t have to be exactly the same.”
I grabbed her hand and held it tight. “We are not to make any arrangements. I will be your leader.” I looked her in the eyes. “Unequaled in the pack.”
As this revelation descended over them, several in the pack began to growl. I’d just announced that I would be their leader, but wouldn’t join the pack, or allow Salina to continue to lead them. It was the ultimate abasement.
I grabbed her shirt and drew her to me. “Do I make myself clear?”
She shuddered. “You can’t be serious.”
I’m as serious as the being who killed Agosto.” The room fell silent until a shifter stepped forward.
“We need an Alpha who can lead us, who can bond with us. And it won’t be no strigoi.” He spit out the last word. He had tussled brown hair, with dark brown eyes, and his hands were clinched in fists. He was prepared to fight me.
“Jessiah, your leader hasn’t taken care of the pack as she should, only I can control your people. And I will have no rebelliousness among your pack.”
I turned back to Salina. “Now, I need you to bow before me, and then partake of my blood. So that you can always be at my beck and call.”
She was breathing heavily, and I watched as her chest rose up and down; I waited to see what she would do. She slid off of her chair to my feet and the pack began to murmur behind her. Several of the men growled as she kneeled down and pressed her forehead to my shoes. They were filled with the muck from the streets and I hadn’t bothered to clean them off.
“I need you to lick them.”
She looked up at me, disgust shown clearly on her face. “Excuse me?”
I kneeled over. “You heard me, lick my boots.”
She gripped my pants leg and I was afraid for a moment that she would yank me off my feet. I put my hand on her back to steady myself and to maintain a stance of control over her.