Crimson Kisses: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Marked Souls Book 1)

by Sabrina Shelley

  Our bodies might be fully clothed, moving desperately against each other as we roll in the dirt, but our magics—our minds—fuck, maybe even our souls—those are tangled together so completely, so impossibly, that they might as well be one.

  All the while, wordlessly our voices call out to each other, bouncing back and forth between us with feelings of pleasure that amplify with every transfer of power: Yes and Oh, God and please and finally, each other’s names, over and over again, until I can’t tell if I’m yelling it or just thinking it.

  Nico!

  Rory!

  Fuck—I can’t even tell if I’m yelling his name or my own.

  The kiss breaks with a hiss of smoke. We pull away from each other gasping for air, then panting. My pussy is throbbing uncontrollably, latched onto the hold of the pleasure so completely that it won’t let go.

  It’s then, in the throes of pleasure, that I see the scorched shape of a circle crossed horizontally by three lines like waves burned into Nico’s shirt. The same shape is branded into the skin of his chest beneath it, just below where my hand was pressed moments before. As I look to my own hands, the vapors of smoke from Nico’s ruined shirt rise up to the setting sun like a prayer.

  “You’re my guardian.” I gasp the words as the shape on Nico’s chest blossoms on my palms, filling in yet another circle on the pentacle.

  “I’m your guardian.” Nico smiles like he’s just won a war for me before he pulls me into another kiss. “I’m your guardian,” he says again, “And I swear to protect you.”

  “So I can trust you?”

  “Maybe not yet.” He thrusts his still-hard cock against my body, teasing me, and I can’t help it—I laugh too. “But someday—I hope you can. You might.”

  “Fuck.” I look at the sun setting over the rose field, my every cell still singing with pleasure. “How long have we been out here?”

  “Long enough.” Nico lifts me off of him effortlessly and brushes the dirt off of me as he helps me up. “Are you as worn out as I am?”

  My stomach growls, right on cue. “You have no idea,” I tell him, then laugh. “Or, well, maybe you do.”

  We walk up to the cantine hand-in-hand. Nico’s magic occasionally licks at my palm, testing me—and to my surprise, I find that I can lick him back. It makes me giggle, the sensation of our magics passing back and forth like this. It’s a little naughty, in a way—especially since Nico keeps making me shiver when he does it—but in another way, it feels like the rightest thing in the world.

  Up at the cantine, all of the regime soldiers seem to be more grouped up than usual. They’re all whispering about something, though they always stop just as Nico and I pass so it’s hard to tell about exactly what.

  Once we’re inside the cantine, it becomes quickly apparent. There, at a table in the corner, sit two newcomers—a handsome guard in an Eastwatch uniform and at his side, diminutive and voluptuous, the girl with pink-hair.

  “Hey, Rory,” she says, catching my eye and calling me out before I have a chance to avoid her. “Looks like you’re not the only person here who can orchestrate a jailbreak, huh?”

  I open my mouth, not really knowing how to respond to that. She sounds aggressive—maybe even a little bitter—and when I look to Nico for guidance, he only shrugs.

  He can’t read her either.

  “It’s okay,” the pink-haired girl tells me, patting the bench next to her at her table. “I won’t bite. But I think you and I have a lot to talk about.” Her eyes narrow and sparkle with cunning as she smiles. “For starters, I’ll take that thank you now.”

  12

  Rory

  The pink-haired girl bites down on a leaf of artichoke, scraping the soft flesh off with her teeth in a way that seems to be making several of the Regime soldiers in the cantine a little tight in the pants.

  “So you’re Johanna Bright’s daughter.” The pink-haired girl’s long, thick eyelashes flick attractively over her amber eyes.

  “So I am. You…knew my mother?” I look up to Nico with thanks as he slides a plate of bread and cheese my way.

  The pink-haired girl shrugs. “Knew of. Everyone does. Abra Blake.” She announces herself formally, holding out her hand to me—not like she wants me to shake it, but like she expects me to kiss it. I settle for taking her fingers awkwardly in mine and giving them a tentative wiggle. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

  A faint blush rises to my cheeks, a couple of shades paler than Abra’s hair. “For Eastwatch, you mean? For distracting your—”

  “My guardian.” Abra holds her palm up, flashing her pentacle at me. It looks like mine, but instead of a circle at each point of the star, she only has one in the center. It’s marked with a clear, clean little heart-shape. As she nods to her guardian, I’m certain he has the same marking emblazoned on his chest. “Orion,” she introduces him. “This is Rory Bright—the one everyone’s saying is just so powerful.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Orion says distantly, stroking a lock of pink hair behind Abra’s ear. It’s like he can’t take his eyes off of her.

  Unfortunately, the reverse isn’t true. Abra’s eyes fall on Nico as he takes a seat at my side. “Oh—well aren’t you delicious.” Her eyes flick toward me with envy. “I suppose he’s yours?”

  “I am,” Nico says with pride, stroking a lock of my own raven hair behind my own ear.

  “One of them, anyway.” Xander’s voice washes over me, surprisingly warm. He lays a hand protectively on my shoulder and I brace for the worst—during his last encounter with Nico, they didn’t exactly part on the best of terms. But instead of starting a fist fight, Xander claps Nico on the back in congratulations. “Rory’s lucky to have you, Arendale.”

  “And you, brother.” Nico smiles up at Xander in camaraderie. “I’m glad to see we’re on the same side.”

  “Two?” If Abra’s voice was tinged with envy before, now it’s dripping with the stuff. “Well aren’t you the lucky one?”

  “Five, actually.” Nico laughs, passing Xander a hunk of bread as he sits on my other side. “She just hasn’t found the rest of us yet.”

  “Well, color me jealous. I suppose you’ll just have to do double the work tonight, big boy.” Abra tickles her guardian beneath the chin as he dips his lips to her neck, mumbling sweet nothings against her skin. Her attention only flickers to him, though—right now, she seems much more interested in the three of us. “Don’t you boys get jealous, though?”

  Xander and Nico trade a look and shake their heads no.

  “We’re bound together now.” Xander lifts a jug of red wine and pours it into Nico’s cup.

  “For better or for worse.” Nico raises the cup as if he’s making a toast. “For Rory’s sake.”

  “Isn’t that sweet,” Abra purrs. She’s looking at me like she’d like to swallow me whole and lick her fingers clean after. “Not much of your mother’s daughter then, are you? Inherited the green eyes but not the rebel yell?”

  My mother? A rebel? That’s the first I’m hearing of that. But judging by the way Xander and Nico seem to tense on either side of me, it’s far from the last.

  “What do you know about my mother?” I ask.

  “What don’t I know?” Abra rolls her eyes. “They warned me you were a little slow, Rory, but I didn’t think you were so completely in the dark.”

  “Why don’t you do some illuminating for me, then?” My voice sounds a little gruff—I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think there’s something about this girl that’s getting on my nerves.

  “Your mother was the greatest witch the Regime had ever seen. Or at least, she was—until she and your father went turncoat.” I hate how she says it—like it’s common knowledge. Like I’m stupid for not knowing. “But her magic was too strong, and your father was too weak to save her. She died a traitor to the great and glorious cause of the Regime—killed in her own ritual. Power burned up all the life in her. They say she was trying to lay a curse the Chancellor himsel
f.” A cruel look of amusement flashes through Abra’s eyes. “Jury’s still out on whether or not she succeeded before she croaked.”

  I look to Xander and Nico with daggers in my eyes. I can tell from the looks on their faces—they already knew all of this. They just didn’t see it fit to tell me.

  Then, I consider what all of this means, and I wonder if there wasn’t a reason that they didn’t.

  “Nice story.” I make a point of changing the subject quickly, swallowing back the tears that I’m not about to shed in front of anyone here. “So how’d you get out of Eastwatch?”

  Abra takes a fig between her teeth and bites down until the juices run down her chin. “I almost didn’t,” she admits. “Even with this one…the escape isn’t the hard part, you know. It’s the mists that really get you. The dark. I’m surprised you got through them on your first try. But then again…” She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “I suppose you are Johanna Bright’s daughter.”

  I remember the silvery mists that surrounded Eastwatch. I can recall the way there seemed to be whispers in every shadow. But it had never crossed my mind that there could be any danger in any of them. My palms had lit my way.

  Even though Abra has made me feel like gum on the bottom of an old tennis shoe, I don’t feel like gloating about it, though. I just shrug. “I suppose I am.”

  Orion mumbles something into Abra’s ear, causing her to smile broadly and coo with delight.

  “Mm. That’s my cue to go somewhere quiet and get naked. We’ll be seeing you, I’m sure. Goodnight, boys—Rory Bright.” Abra winks at us and lets her guardian help her up out of her seat. I’m sure they’re going back to her room to continue their canoodling somewhere more private—all I can hope is that her room isn’t next to mine.

  “Wait,” I call out after Abra before she’s out of earshot. “What about the other girl at Eastwatch—Cassandra? The one with the white hair?”

  Abra pauses and turns, giving me a sad shrug. “Belmont said if I had been there a few more days without a successful escape, they would have stripped me of my powers for good. I don’t think that skinny little white-haired thing has even tried it yet—my guess is, if she’s still there, she won’t be for long.”

  In Abra’s absence, I scoot my chair back and look to Xander, then Nico.

  “Rebel witch?” I cross my arms over my chest and run my tongue over my lower lip. “Cursing the Chancellor himself?”

  “Rory—”

  “This isn’t—”

  I hold my hands up, flashing both of them the markings on my palms as I stop them before they can start. “Let me give you your first line and we’ll go from there. Rory, we’re sooooo sorry for lying to you, first of all, and second—”

  “We didn’t lie,” Nico reminds me tactfully.

  “And we’re not talking about this.” Xander’s giving me his stern, serious mentor look. “Not here. Not now.”

  “So when are we talking about it? What would be the appropriate time? Because frankly, I’m pretty fucking tired of everything about me, my mother and this world being an inside joke that everyone in Aisling is in on except for, y’know. Me.”

  Xander’s eyes darken. “Later, Rory. When we’re not in a room full of Regime soldiers.”

  “When we’re not under watch,” Nico adds, a little softer than Xander, but still pretty fucking grim. “And here in Aisling, we’re always under watch.”

  I cast a glance over to some of the officers sitting at a table nearby. I hate to admit that Xander is right, but my little outburst seems to have drawn the attention of more than one of them.

  Well, shit.

  “Whisper it to me, then.” I lower my voice to a hiss.

  “Doesn’t work like that.” Nico takes my wrists and uncrosses my arms by brute force. I can feel a wave of calm pass over me at his touch, even though I think we agreed that he wasn’t going to pull that shit. I give it a pass this time because, despite how fucking annoyed I am, I understand that me having a meltdown in the middle of the cantine right now isn’t what’s best for me or anyone else.

  “How does it work, then?” I let my shoulders slump as I give Nico my look of surrender.

  “Think, Rory.” Nico raises one of my palms to his lips and lays a gentle kiss on his mark. “How can the Regime see everything that happens in Aisling? Hear everything? Even a whisper?”

  Xander throws his hands up on the other side of me, obviously annoyed that we’re even discussing why we can’t discuss anything.

  “Magic?” I hazard a guess, and Nico nods.

  “Magic,” he confirms.

  “But how?!”

  Xander scoffs. “Rory, you’ve only just Awakened—and you’re doing it blind. The more you learn at this point, the less you’re going to realize you know.”

  “Magic is a river that runs deep, my dear.” Nico strokes my palm idly with his fingertips. “And you’ve only just begun to skim the surface.”

  “Then I want to go deeper.” I give them both a sincere look, and they both perk up at my gaze. “I have to.”

  “You’ll have time,” Nico reassures me as Xander relaxes, taking a sip of wine. “A year at Aisling and—”

  “No,” I stop him. “I don’t have a year. I need to learn everything I can do, and I need to learn it by tonight.”

  There’s a choking sound from Xander as he swallows his wine down the wrong pipe. “You can’t be serious, Rory.”

  “You heard Abra. Cassandra is still in Eastwatch, and if she doesn’t escape—”

  “Then she wasn’t cut out for this,” Xander says, cold and detached.

  “Then she dies.” Xander’s giving me another of his warning looks, but I ignore it. “You can’t seriously believe the story Dr. Belmont was hawking. I obviously don’t know jack shit about anything in this world, and even I could tell that the whole tall tale about removing your magic and returning you to society was a blatant lie.”

  “She has a point,” Nico says, popping an olive in his mouth and looking oddly proud of me.

  “What point?” I hear Drew’s voice behind me. When I turn, I can see his expression sour at the presence of the two men flanking me. He raises his plate of food gently nonetheless, gesturing to the table we’re sitting at. “Room for one more?”

  A little smile spreads over my face. Drew. He ought to be on my shit list too, considering he’s had more time than anyone to not tell me anything about this world I’ve been tossed into, but I’m honestly just glad to see that he’s not avoiding me.

  Of course, that doesn’t stop the heat from rising to my cheeks when I remember why Drew might be avoiding me. His lips…his hands…the way he knew exactly what I wanted him to do to my body, and not only that, but exactly how…

  I try to fight back the blush as I motion for him to sit, but Nico cuts in before I can.

  “Drew, isn’t it?” There’s a hint of coldness in Nico’s voice that I can’t think of any foundation for. “You’re Rory’s…what? Plaything?”

  “More of a well-intentioned pet, I think,” Xander feels the need to add. “He’s been trained, but he doesn’t know how to do any tricks.”

  “Ah.” Nico leans back and turns to face Drew, man to man. “So he knows the rules. In that case, tell me, Drew—do you really think remaining close to Rory will work out in your best interests?” His eyes flick toward me. There’s a hint of betrayal in his gaze. “Or hers?”

  “What the fuck?” I literally can’t believe they’re pulling this shit right now. “I can sit with whoever I want to, thanks.”

  “And you’re welcome to,” Nico informs me. “As long as sitting is all you’re doing.”

  We share a gaze and suddenly, I realize it.

  The little flash of desire that I felt when Drew appeared. Nico felt it too.

  He knows.

  “And who do you think you are,” Drew says gruffly, looking down his nose at Nico, “telling Rory what she can and can’t do?”

  A smile spreads acros
s Nico’s lips as he pulls back his collar, revealing the waves of his mark.

  “Drew—” I start, but it’s too late. The sight of Nico’s mark is enough to take the fight from his fists and the wind from his sails.

  “No, Rory. It’s okay.” Drew backs away in surrender, taking his dinner elsewhere. “He’s right. It’s probably best if I stay away.”

  “What the shit?!” I growl at Xander and Nico once he’s gone. “Was that really necessary? What happened to your whole no jealousy bullshit?”

  “That wasn’t jealousy,” Nico corrects me. “That was contempt.”

  “There won’t ever be any jealousy,” Xander tries to reassure me. “Not between your guardians, Rory. But outsiders…”

  I feel my blood run cold. “It’s true, then. You shitstains are my soulmates and anyone else who dares to feel fuck all for me dies.”

  Xander shrugs. “At least someone told you that much.”

  “I don’t mind if you keep pets, Rory,” Nico says. There’s a smirk on his face that means he obviously thinks he’s being clever. “Just don’t fuck them, okay?”

  “Enjoy your fucking dinner,” I tell them both. I get up in a huff, suddenly without an appetite. “I hope you choke on it.”

  “Goodnight, my dear,” Nico says.

  Xander doesn’t say anything at all. He just watches me go.

  13

  Rory

  I never wanted to come to Aisling. I never asked for any of this. I never wanted magical fucking powers, I never wanted crazy markings on my hands, and I certainly never wanted five fucking soul mates to tell me who I can and can’t spend time with.

  In fact, all I ever wanted before my stupid fucking Awakening was the bare goddamn minimum. A safe place to sleep, enough food to get me through the day, my job at the library and a little time at the end of the day with my best friend.