Dark Embrace (Principatus)

by Couper, Lexxie

  Ezryn roared, his vampire croi surging through him. Every deadly, demonic instinct took over. He threw back his arms, flinging the guards holding him across the room. “No!”

  He leapt the distance between him and Inari, icy alarm devouring him. Haral would not take her. He would die before he let his brother even touch her.

  He planted his feet on the floor and reached for her, his stare locking on her eyes. I will—

  “Ezryn!” She screamed, lunging at him, horror distorting her face at the exact second a crossbow bolt speared into his back high on his left shoulder. Excruciating agony ripped through him. He screamed, twisting his body to snatch at the pointed length of wood. He tore the stake free of his flesh, spinning away from Inari’s distraught face to glare at the guard staggering backward, crossbow wavering in his hands. “Not a wise move.”

  “Ow, you fucking bastard!”

  Jacob’s furious shout punched into Ezryn’s rage. He turned to his general just in time to see Haral shove him away from his body. Blood gushed from Jacob’s side, and it took Ezryn a split second to see the stake buried into his friend’s armpit.

  Fuck.

  Haral leapt to his feet, human façade gone. “I’m going to rip your gods-cursed head off, Ford.”

  “Try it,” Jacob spat, his face contorted in pain even as his eyes flashed cold hate.

  Two guards threw themselves at Jacob just as three threw themselves at Ezryn.

  They slammed into him, smashing the butts of their crossbows against his face, his chest, his ribs.

  Why aren’t they staking you?

  The incredulous question shot through the pain erupting in his body a second before the chilling answer destroyed that pain. His twin wanted him alive.

  “Get me the Principatus!”

  The triumph in Haral’s shouted command made Ezryn’s gut churn. He reeled backwards, spreading his arms to protect Inari, and the guards struck him again and again with their crossbows. Dark Ones, how was he going to keep her safe?

  From the corner of his eye, he saw the two guards raining blow after blow down on Jacob, each struggling to avoid the vampire’s savage counterattack. Blood poured from the stake wound in Jake’s side, the thick length of sharpened wood jutting from his flesh like a surreal growth.

  Fuck. How was he going to get them all out of here alive?

  “I want the Principatus!” Haral screamed, and Ezryn felt a solid wall of something cold and contemptuous hit him from behind. It was coming from Inari. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, he would have laughed. It seemed his lover didn’t like his brother either.

  “Get me the Principatus!” Haral screeched again. “Get her, get her, get her!”

  “Inari Chayse is not just a Principatus, Harry,” Ezryn heard Jacob snarl, pain distorting his voice to a strangled breath. “She is a succubus.”

  “And a damn good one.” Inari’s calm, matter-of-fact voice sounded behind Ezryn. “Watch.”

  A sudden wave of concentrated pleasure crashed over him, through him. His balls rose up, tight and hot with instant lust. His cock surged with hot, eager blood. He spun around, his body on fire with molten desire, and stared at Inari.

  Have her have her fuck must have her

  Scalding lust ripped through him. His cock strained against the inside of his trousers, rigid and throbbing with want. His mouth filled with saliva, his fangs extended farther.

  Want her, want her, want her

  He craved the taste of her flesh on his tongue, hungered for the feel of her nipples in his mouth. Lusted for the tight, wet heat of her sex, her ass around his cock. Lusted for it. Needed it. Had to have it. Had to have her. Now.

  Want her, want her, oh fuck, want her now

  And then the uncontrollable, consuming lust was gone. As if it hadn’t been there at all.

  He gaped at her, the ghost of his overwhelming desire still throbbing through his dick in a fading, empty heat. Dark Ones, was that the power of a succubus? Had he really thought she’d turned that power on him before?

  Real. What you’ve felt for her all this time has been real.

  A wild moan rose on the air above him, killing the joyous realization. A raw gasp, a hitching groan. He spun back to the guards behind him, stunned disbelief robbing him of his ability to speak. Each one was on their knees, crossbows hanging limply from their fingers or dropped to the floor altogether. Each one gazed at Inari with open, unadulterated, ravenous rapture.

  “I will fuck you all,” she murmured, her eyes smoldering with green fire. A chill shot up Ezryn’s spine. Her body, her face said she was a being of sexual appetites, willing and waiting to bring absolute pleasure, but he was bound to her, he knew her, and what he felt folded through the sensual purr made his balls shrink.

  Rage. Powerful, icy, righteous rage. The rage of a Principatus.

  “I will let you possess my body,” she went on, her eyes glowing hotter, greener. She lifted her hands to her breasts, skimming her knuckles over the taut tips of her nipples pushing against her top. The action elicited another groan from the vampires staring at her, their lips growing wet with drool. “I will let you use my body, abuse it, devour it. All of you.” She shuttered her eyes with a coy downward glance, stroking the sides of her breasts, her ribs, her hips with her fingertips. “If you all do something for me.”

  “What the fuck is going on?” Haral’s shout cut the moans, but not one guard moved or tore their hungry gaze from Inari. “Get her!”

  “Anything!” the guard to Ezryn’s right burst out, swaying toward Inari. “Anything for you, my goddess.”

  A husky giggle slipped past Inari’s lips, and she touched the tip of her tongue to her top teeth. “Anything? Then so be it. Tear your dicks from your bodies and stuff them down your throats.”

  The brutal, shocking order came from her on a breathless whisper. Ezryn’s throat squeezed tight and he stared at her, Jacob’s stunned gasp barely registering.

  “What? What?” Haral yelped.

  Ezryn turned back to the guards, shocked to see each and every one ripping at their flies, their crotches bulging, their eyes feverish.

  Dark Ones, they’re going to do it. They’re really going to do it.

  “Stop!” Haral bellowed, glaring with shocked fury at his guards. “What are you doing?”

  A sharp bark of mirthless humor sounded to Ezryn’s right, barely audible over the hideous noises of pleasure, tearing flesh and muffled gagging. “It’s pretty fucking obvious, isn’t it, Harry?” Jacob said, his voice a jarring mix of revulsion and impressed awe. “They’re yanking their cocks off and choking on them.”

  “No!” The overlord shook his head, disbelief twisting his face into a contorted mask. “No!” His stare jerked to Inari and a shard of acrid unease stabbed into Ezryn’s chest. “How…how?”

  “I believe you wanted me, Haral Navarr?”

  Inari’s question stroked the room like velvet. Ezryn tensed, his gut knotting. He could feel her anger pulsing through her. A terrifying force matched only by the inescapable, undeniable force of her demon sexuality.

  He shot his brother a quick look, gut knotting tighter.

  “Then have me,” Inari whispered.

  Haral’s eyes grew wide. His lips parted in a silent gasp Ezryn heard all the same before he fell to his knees, blood flowing from the gaping bite wound in his cheek, his enrapt gaze ablaze with hungry, mindless lust. “Oh, oh, oh.” His groan ripped from his throat, a sound so carnal, so ripe with licentious pleasure Ezryn‘s gut rolled.

  He knew what was happening to his brother. Haral hungered for Inari Chayse. Completely and utterly. He was consumed by desire for her. Mindless with it.

  “Have me,” Inari whispered again, stepping forward. She didn’t look at Ezryn as she brushed past him. She didn’t have to. He felt everything she felt. Her rage, her contempt, her revulsion…

  Haral groaned again, reaching for her from his subservient position, his hands trembling, his nostrils flaring. “Wa
nt you, want you.”

  “Have me.”

  The command caressed the room. Haral roared, grabbing at his trousers. “Want you, want you, want, want, want.”

  Sour bile rose in Ezryn’s throat at the sight of his brother tearing at his clothes, desperate to get his hands on his erection. Ezryn bared his fangs, the urge to smash his fists into Haral’s gut, to obliterate his twin’s lascivious cravings for Inari almost overwhelming him.

  He took a step forward.

  Wait.

  The word slipped through his head like a silent breeze. He stopped and shot Inari a quick look.

  “Do you want to fuck me, Haral Navarr?” She ran her fingertips up her belly, over her breasts, up her throat.

  Haral nodded his head with such violent agreement Ezryn swore he heard the bones in his twin’s neck grind together. “Yes, my goddess. Yes.”

  “Then tell me, how did you become overlord?”

  Ezryn froze, his stare snapping to Inari’s face.

  “No, my goddess. I can’t…”

  Harry’s tortured whimper jerked his attention back to his brother, and he bunched his fists. Harry was shaking, eyes bulging wider, face a sickly white. “Please, not that,” Haral blubbered, wringing his hands together.

  “Do you want to fuck me, Haral?” Inari asked again, her voice lower, huskier. “Do you want to sink your fangs into my neck and feed from me?”

  Harry’s mouth fell open and he scurried forward on his knees, arms held out to her. “Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

  “Then tell me, how did you become the overlord?”

  “The oracle wanted Ezryn,” Haral burst out, the words running over each other, his stare never leaving Inari’s face. “The oracle wanted Ezryn for his bed, but our father refused him. Our father always cherished Ezryn more. So I went to the oracle and offered myself. Wasn’t that clever, my goddess?”

  “Very clever, Haral.” Inari’s tone grew calm. “Tell me more.”

  “I knew, you see, what the oracle could do,” Haral gushed, scurrying closer toward her, spittle shining on his lips. “I knew if I let him fuck me whenever he wanted, if I let him pretend I was my brother, one day he’d let me have what I wanted. Would do what I wanted him to do.”

  “And what was that, Haral?”

  The overlord hesitated, terror flicking across his pudgy face. “My goddess, please, no…”

  A wave of rapture radiated from Inari and Haral whimpered, reaching for her again. “I wanted him to declare the human virgin whispered my name after the blood trails, not Ezryn’s,” he cried, tears of blood leaking from his eyes. “I wanted to be overlord. Not my brother.”

  Ezryn stared at his twin, disgust churning in his gut, and relief—cold and empty and somehow hollow—igniting in his chest. The truth was revealed. He ran an unwavering stare over the vampires around them watching the spectacle. Their faces registered shock and disbelief. Followed by contempt.

  “So you lied?” Inari whispered, husky voice all but inaudible. “You aren’t the true overlord? You aren’t the first born of the First Family?”

  “I lied,” Haral moaned. “I’m not the first born. I am not the true overlord. I killed my mother when she discovered the truth of my relationship with the oracle, and I arranged for my father’s murder.” He wrung his hands again, gazing at her. “Will you fuck me now, my goddess? Will you let me feed on your blood as I fuck your beauty?”

  Cold shock slammed into Ezryn. He narrowed his stare, his brother’s confession chilling him to his very core. Their mother’s death? Their father’s… How had he never known the true depths of Haral’s lust for power? How had he not felt his twin’s true hatred?

  He took a step forward, the blood in his veins like ice. It was time to end it. Time to finish the woeful situation once and for all.

  “Goddess?” Haral wailed, staring at Inari with beseeching, pathetic hunger. “I want you. I want you.”

  “Then have me,” Inari stated, and she spread her arms out to the side. “Have all of me.”

  The air shimmered. A pulse of raw lust blasted through Ezryn. Jacob groaned, the sound strangled.

  And Haral threw back his head, a wail of absolute rapture bursting from his throat, his hands grabbing at his cock, his balls, pulling at them, mauling them as bright red blood began to ooze from his ears, his nose. “Want, want, want, want, want…” He thrashed on his knees, eyes wild and glazed, body shuddering. “Want, want, want…”

  Something intangible wrapped around Ezryn’s chest. He let out a choked growl, his brother’s wails and cries piercing his unbeating heart. Haral was his twin brother. Second born of the First Family. His twin brother who was never meant for the power, the responsibility of the overlord.

  He squeezed his fists harder, watching Haral gouge at his groin, eyes rolling, saliva drooling from his mouth.

  Brother.

  Disgusted pity twisted in Ezryn’s core and he shot Inari a quick look. “Enough, my love. The truth has been revealed. There is no need for any further proof.”

  Without hesitation, she lowered her arms and Haral collapsed forward, as if the power to control his body had suddenly been cut. She looked at Ezryn over her shoulder, an uncertain, almost shy frown playing with her eyebrows. He gave her a small smile and she nodded once. She understood. He could sense her acceptance of his decision and the reasoning behind it. “He is your brother, Ezryn. Your twin brother.”

  He turned back to Haral, studying his brother’s slumped, trembling form. “It is over, Haral. You have no influence, hold no sway over the fate of the vampire race anymore. I accept my birthright as the true overlord and am commanding you to abdicate.”

  Haral lifted his head, staring at him with eyes still wild, still empty. “No… Want…”

  Ezryn clenched his jaw, a numb ache settling in his gut. “What you want you can no longer have, Haral. I will let you live—you are my brother. But know this, you are no longer the overlord, and any attempt to challenge my ruling will be severely punished. This is the way it is, and this is the way it will be.”

  A low groan rumbled deep in Haral’s chest. A shudder rocked him and he glared up at Ezryn, hate etched on his face, his eyes suddenly clear. Baleful. “The way it will fucking be,” he sneered.

  “Master!” Jacob yelled, “Look out!”

  Ezryn reeled backward, a split second before Haral launched himself from the floor, a purple streak of hissing speed, and slammed into Inari.

  “No!” Ezryn spun toward them, dread smashing into his heart.

  Haral staggered away from him, crushing Inari against his body, hiding behind her. One hand hooked into her breast, his pudgy fingers sinking into its full curve, the other rammed her head to her shoulder, straining her neck into a shocking curve even as she struggled in his hold. “You can have the position of overlord, brother,” he snarled, fangs glistening with saliva. His glare locked on Ezryn’s face. “I claim the Principatus.”

  “No!” Ezryn roared again, just as Haral sank his fangs into Inari’s throat.

  Piercing pain detonated in her neck, up into her head, down into her chest. Ezryn felt it as surely as if his brother had punctured his own neck. Her spine snapped into a violent arch and she bucked in Haral’s hideous embrace, her neck and shoulder on fire, Haral’s teeth sinking deeper into her flesh.

  “Bastard!”

  The word shot through Ezryn’s head, Inari’s thought both incredulous and furious. His gut rolled. His chest squeezed tight. She bucked again, her stare locked on his face. Her blood gushed past Haral’s lips, a drowning flood streaming down her neck, over her shoulder, her chest. Painting her flesh red.

  “Ezryn.”

  His name was whispered in his head, and with it came a wisp of something delicate and powerful at once—love—before he felt nothing but an icy ripple and a surging force.

  The Principatus was emerging.

  God’s assassin rising. Ready, eager to destroy.

  Inari flung her arms wide, throwin
g Haral off her back with little effort, his fangs gouging her flesh, his nails raking over her breast. Ezryn experienced her pain, her repulsed disgust, and it unleashed his own. Completely.

  He smashed into his twin, pinned him to the floor by the neck and glared down into his face. “After everything you’ve done to everyone I’ve loved, after what you did to Jacob…to Inari…” Cold resolution flowed through him. “I have to kill you.”

  He slammed his fist into his brother’s face, shattering his teeth. His knuckles stung, ripped open by Haral’s fangs, but he didn’t stop. He hit his brother again, his vampire’s soulless croi taking control, the years of betrayal, hate and denial pushing him beyond rational thought. It turned him into the monster he so despised—the bloodthirsty, soulless killing machine.

  He hit Haral again, each punch shattering the face so like his own, each blow showering him in his twin’s blood.

  Until something vise-like grabbed his wrist.

  He snapped his stare over his shoulder, fangs bared, the blood rage boiling in his veins.

  Jacob stood beside him, his fingers curled around his wrist, his face bruised, broken but already beginning to mend. He gave Ezryn a silent shake of the head, the stake buried in his armpit dripping blood. “You will hate yourself, Ezryn,” he stated, pushing Ezryn’s arm down, lowering his killing strike.

  Ezryn swung his gaze back to his brother, the savage damage to Haral’s nose and teeth a mirror to the damage Haral had wrought on Jake.

  “What are you going to do, Ezzie?” Haral rasped, glaring up at him through bleeding eyes. “You’re too noble to kill me?”

  “He may be, Harry,” Jacob said, his voice full of menacing promise. He stepped forward, placed his hand on Ezryn’s shoulder and moved him away from Haral with gentle but inarguable force. “But I’m not.” He reached up, wrapped his fingers around the stake buried in his armpit and withdrew it in one slow, steady pull. His blood ran down its pointed length, dripping on the floor beside his foot, an unspeakable message to all. “Ready?”

  Ezryn studied him, on the verge of telling Jake to stand down. And then he thought of Jacob’s wife, of what Haral had ordered done to her, what Haral’s zealots had forced Jacob to watch. He thought of what Haral had done to Kristoph, what he’d tried to do to Inari, and he gave his best friend a single nod.