by Meg Xuemei X
A Court of Fire and Metal
WAR OF THE GODS, #2
Meg Xuemei X
A Court of Fire and Metal © 2018 by Meg Xuemei X
Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Cover art by Andreea Vraciu
Edited by Dan McNeill
Proofread by Fading Street
The novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Sneak Peek of The Dragonian’s Witch
More Books by Meg Xuemei X
About the Author
To the readers
A Court of Fire and Metal
(War of the Gods, #2)
The four mighty, smoking-hot warriors had wanted to use Cass Saélihn as the weapon to kill the Olympian gods, but they fell for her instead. Now all they want is to protect her. So they hide Cass in the magically glamoured Academy, the only safe place for earthlings.
But Cass won’t cower or run from danger. She sets her own rules and stands her ground, no matter how her blood heats for her alpha mates. She’s determined to take the fight to the gods, not as a weapon but a leader.
Yet an all-powerful, beautiful, cruel god is already among them, much closer than she and her four mates can imagine. He covets Cass and her power more than anything, and when the god strikes, he leaves nothing to chance.
1
I’d once told the Unseelie fae heir that I didn’t give a fuck if the world burned.
I’d lied.
I wasn’t raised in the world, but it was mine. I knew in my red-hot blood that it was mine. Only, I’d been kept away from it, locked in a cage.
And now, possessive fire burned within me.
Lorcan and Reysalor had found me and freed me. I’d tried to run away from them, seeking my absolute freedom.
I had thought the four warriors only wanted me as their weapon, but it was more than that. They’d been willing to sacrifice their lives for me when the Olympian gods had hunted me down and poisoned me with the Devil’s Love.
They had told me I was their one true mate, on whom they’d been awaiting for a millennium, and that I would bond them all. Now I knew my freedom was with them, I was done running.
I wouldn’t run from the gods, either. They would never stop hunting me, but the four males would stand by my side.
They would prepare me for the fight that was coming my way.
Yet I had no fear. I was Cass Saélihn, the wildfire.
I would start by hauling the High Lord of Night’s ass out of his long slumber and back to reality.
Filled with such determination, I turned the cold metal knob and opened the ebony door.
My gaze shifted from the fresh dandelions in a porcelain vase to the large male lying motionless on a platform bed. I had collected the flowers in the field that morning, hoping the dandelions’ loveliness and strength would kick some sense into the vampire lord, since he still refused to wake up.
It was up to me to get him to take on some responsibility.
According to the twin panthers and a demigod, I’d need all of my mad skills in seduction to coax the vampire lord back to the waking world with us.
Reysalor, Pyrder, and Alaric stood behind me, their intoxicating male scent and powers wrapping around me, muddling my mind and making my knees weak, but not so weak as to allow them to dictate how I should seduce the powerful vampire from his comatose rest.
“Cass baby,” Reysalor said, his voice enchanting and full of support.
I glanced at him over my shoulder, then at Alaric and Pyrder.
They gazed at me expectantly, eyes of different shades and colors, full of heat and sexual promise. They were all ready to plunge into action with me.
I swallowed, my heart pounding in my rib cage, my blood racing in my veins.
“I got it,” I said, shaking my head. “I need to do this alone.”
I would do this alone.
Understanding flashed in their eyes.
“We’ll be right here, Cass baby,” Pyrder said softly.
Alaric’s honey-brown eyes darkened as he gave me a respectful nod. Even if I insisted, they wouldn’t leave this suite. They would come to me if there were any hint of danger or threat, even from their bonded brother, and no door—wood, stone, or steel—could stop them.
That was how those alpha males were. They let me do this alone, only because they believed that Lorcan would never hurt his mate.
I was mate to them all.
I walked into the candlelit room and closed the ebony door behind me.
2
I was alone with the High Lord of Night, a superior being, a nightmare to other species. Even his own kind feared him.
But he was never a nightmare to me.
I remembered how he’d stared at me the first time he’d seen me. His piercing gray eyes had shined with intelligence and hunger, his nostrils flaring at my scent. I’d mistaken his intent, thought that he’d wanted my blood, but he was taking in my scent and had recognized me as his mate.
Lolling on the lily-white bed as if frozen in time, Lorcan’s face was pale and cold as marble, yet his masculine beauty still moved me.
His heart started beating as I entered the room. It was slow, faint, but it was beating. He hadn’t hesitated to shield Reys and me with his massive body when the Goddess of Track had shot an arrow of fire and lightning at me.
He’d nearly died to protect me.
I stalked toward the High Lord of Night.
“Lorcan,” I called.
He didn’t respond, as usual.
I sat on the edge of the bed as I brushed away a strand of his medium-length hair from his forehead. My fingers slid into his thick mane.
“It’s childish to refuse to wake up,” I chided. “Do you know that?”
He didn’t answer.
“We need you to man up. So wake the fuck up, please,” I continued, plucking a petal off the dande
lion, and waited.
No dice. I needed another strategy.
“Fine, what does it take for you to be responsive? For fuck’s sake, you’re the High Lord of Night. You’re supposed to lead a vampire army. I kid you not, the war is coming!”
No go.
His sensual lips that had licked me down there in my wet dream weren’t moving at all. I’d constantly fantasized about how it would feel to have his hot mouth claiming my lips both up and down. I had a lot of dirty thoughts.
Anyway, Reys had said that Lorcan would only awake when he was greatly motivated.
It could very well start with a kiss, and I had wanted it from him for a while.
I tossed the dandelion into his hair, bent down, my palms on either side of his face, and pressed my lips to his. They were soft and cold beneath my feather-light touch, and his scent of faint pine and aged wine whirled around me, caressing me.
The High Lord’s primal power pulsed, pulling me closer into its shield as it recognized me. Even in a coma, his instinct was to protect me.
My lips traced his, slowly and sensually, but I grew impatient. I wanted more. I wanted his heat, his touch, and his icy fire. The tip of my tongue pushed forward, urging his mouth to open. To my surprise, he obliged, even though he didn’t wake.
My tongue thrust through his parted lips and met his tongue, stroking to taste him. To seduce him. Another surprise hit me—he tasted sweet beneath his pure ancient power. And there was an earthiness about him that called to my soul. No wonder he was the first and only natural-born vampire.
As I kept kissing him, my tongue exploring his mouth, he received my sexual advance passively. Though I bet he enjoyed it, he didn’t fully participate, satisfied to let me do all the work. But his scent, male and possessive, grew heady, and through it, I knew what he truly wanted. He wouldn’t compromise until he got it.
I pulled my tongue free. He seemed reluctant, but he didn’t pursue it.
“You’re one devious, stubborn son of a bitch, Lorcan,” I said. I bit the tip of my tongue until it bled. “Claim me then if you’re truly my fated mate. This is a one-time offer and it expires before the sun comes up.”
I slanted my lips onto his, not so gently, and my tongue thrust into his mouth again.
When the first drop of my blood hit his tongue, I felt a stir in him, a primitive power in his depths roaring back alive.
His body warmed as heat swirled up, cocooning me. I widened my eyes. I hadn’t known a vampire could have such intense body heat. I’d thought they were the coldest things.
I blinked as a realization hit me. The made-vampires were cold-blooded, but Lorcan was a born vampire. He belonged to nature as much as I did.
While his heat warmed me, his masculine scent drew me further in, trapping me. I perceived that this was one very possessive vampire, who would never let me go.
His heart started thumping under my palm, and my heart pounded just as strongly and in sync with his.
Fuck! He was going to wake up now! Or had he already?
I withdrew my tongue but failed, because his teeth—now protruding to fangs—held my tongue and kept it in.
Alarm flared in my mind and panic rose in me. My hands lashed out and grabbed his white throat, ready to choke him if he took the liberty of biting me. And I didn’t care I’d just gotten him to break the surface of whatever murky water he’d been deeply under.
No one bit Cass Saélihn without permission.
His fangs retreated, and his tongue swirled around mine, seducing silkily like the most skilled lover. Pleasure shot to my nerve endings.
That was more like it.
Our tongues started the mating dance.
I didn’t urge him to open his eyes, since I just closed mine, indulging myself in the sensuality. Who could imagine a vampire could kiss like a divine, icy flame?
Heat roared in my bloodstream, and liquid fire pooled between my thighs.
A rough groan sounded from Lorcan’s throat. Then he shoved my tongue back to my mouth, withdrew his, and closed his lips.
Before I could protest, his large hands palmed my face and pulled it away from him. I flashed open my eyes, only to find Lorcan’s glowing ones staring into me.
The High Lord of Night had awoken, and he pushed me away, no longer needing me.
A hurt I hadn’t expected pounded into me.
“Well, well, the sleeping beauty has finally woken up,” I said, attempting to cover my stupid hurt with sarcasm. “My job is well-done and done.”
I hesitated for a heartbeat, unwilling to leave him, but I had to preserve my pride. I jumped off the edge of the bed.
Originally, I’d planned to coax him back to the waking world, because we would need him and his vampire army by my side to fight the gods should my hunters come looking. I’d planned to leave him right after that, without letting him pierce my skin and getting a piece of me.
I hadn’t known I was such a contradictory creature.
I’d convinced myself that Cass Saélihn wouldn’t go down without a fight, but when he hadn’t wanted to get intimate with me, as the other three males assumed he would, I didn’t feel the slightest relief but a deep bruise in my ego.
The High Lord of Night wasn’t interested in me. He pushed me away.
I gave him a thumbs-up awkwardly. “I’ll go get the others. They’ve been waiting for you to get back to your duty, and I bet you know what it is since you’re the vampire lord.”
At least I didn’t call him a bloodsucker, even though the hurt still rippled in me.
An arm shot out, faster than anything, and sneaked around my waist.
Lorcan pulled me back to the bed before I could head toward the ebon door.
I toppled on his massive, hard body, my breasts on his broad chest, my two-toned eyes—one violet, one golden, like living fire—staring down at his handsome face, and my shivering lips a few inches from his.
“Not so fast, little mate,” he said harshly. “You’re going nowhere.”
“Are you challenging me again, vampire?” I asked, thinking of folding my arms across my chest to show my defiance, but it wasn’t possible, since he had wrapped his arms around me, pinning me against him.
Our hearts drummed together.
His eyes sparkled. “You made my heart beat when I first met you. And now you make it beat again for a reason.”
“What reason?” I asked stupidly since my mind could barely process any thought with his sweet, minty breath mingling with mine.
He moved, and before I could blink, I was beneath his massive body, his huge hardness pressing between my thighs.
His head dipped down, and his mouth crushed onto mine. When his tongue stroked mine in demand and command, the heat in me turned unbearable.
My panties were embarrassingly soaked.
A deep ache rippled through me, and the need for him pounded in my every cell.
Fuck, this was bad. I hadn’t expected Lorcan’s male animal to power over me like this. I shouldn’t surrender just like that. I probably should put up a half-hearted fight and let him see I wasn’t that easy.
He lifted his head, his lust-filled, gray-silver eyes gazing down at me. “Anything from you—your scent, your laugh, your words, and the way you move—consumes my entire being like no other. I’ve never felt this way. I want you more than I’ve wanted anything and anyone ever since I first laid eyes on you.”
Reys, Pyrder, and Alaric had all said nice things to me before I’d come in, and now Lorcan had also confessed his feelings for me. It was nice, though it was also overwhelming. I’d never had anyone in my life before, except for the psychopath Jezebel, and, all of a sudden, I had four males—not just any males, but the most gorgeous, powerful males walking the Earth—who wanted me and were devoted to me.
And I hadn’t expected Lorcan to have deep feelings for me since he was the solemn, formidable type. He wasn’t used to getting in touch with his feelings.
“You mean that?” I asked.
>
“Have no doubt, dulcis,” he said. “You know my heart beats for you.”
Dulcis meant beloved in the ancient tongue. He called me his beloved.
The High Lord no longer wanted to talk. His lips crushed onto mine again, and I opened my mouth for him. He took the advantage and thrust his tongue in quickly as if afraid I’d close the window if he weren’t fast enough.
His tongue lapped mine erotically, sending shocks of pleasure all over me.
Despite my intentions, a sultry moan escaped my throat.
His kiss increased in urgency.
Fever coursed through my body, the mating need slamming into me in waves.
My fingers, which had curled and grabbed the front of his shirt, now flattened, slid in his clothes, moved around to his back, and traced his powerful spine.
I wanted to explore his every inch.
This is a pure male, and he’s mine, a voice, feral and wild, purred in me.
For a second, I was taken aback by its ferocity. Jezebel had always called me a monster. Was this the monster she’d feared? But this monster wasn’t going to harm anyone. It just wanted to stake a claim on the High Lord of Night and get laid.
Lorcan broke our kiss, hunger and lust turning his gray eyes to half silver and half burning-golden.
My heart fluttered erratically.
Was he going to pierce my skin and drink from me now? Cutting my wrist and feeding him was one thing, but letting his fangs near my neck—
I swallowed nervously. He’d woken up and maybe we should just leave it there. Before I gathered my strength and shoved him away, he pulled me in closer and kissed me gently, seeing the fear in my eyes. He wouldn’t allow me to be afraid of him.
He heaved me up and I was no longer caged beneath him but lay atop him again.
How could he even do that, as if I weighed no more than a feather?
Then a realization sank in. He was letting me have control, though he wouldn’t let me get away from him.
“I crave you more than anything, dulcis,” he said huskily. “Your blood calls to me and sings in my veins, but you’ll never be my food. You’re the mate I treasure more than anything, and I’ve never taken any female as my mate.”