by Meg Xuemei X
“We agreed that I’d always pick my own clothes.” I fixed my gaze on Lorcan before darting toward Reysalor. “I don’t want the blue gown.”
“The ladies in my court wear gowns except for the female guards,” Lorcan said.
“I’m a warrior, too, a born one,” I said.
The males all looked at me doubtfully.
I sent my air current at them, but their hair just ruffled in the wind. Right, I forgot my power wouldn’t hurt my mates.
The males grinned.
I threw a hand, and chairs in the room flew around, slamming into them. That I could do.
The males laughed and ducked.
Pyrder grabbed a chair speeding toward him, put it down, and sat on it with a smirk. But the chair wasn’t budging and kept bumping his ass.
“Fine, fine, let’s call it a truce,” Reys called.
I withdrew my air current that had wrecked the room. “You all want me to be a weapon, don’t you?”
All the smiles and laughs dropped off them. They looked grimmer than ever. That was why they’d sought me out in the first place. But now, they only wanted to shield their weapon, hide it in a sheath.
It was too late now.
“So I’m going to act like a weapon,” I said. “I’ll dress like a weapon first. I don’t want a gown unless it’s a weapon in disguise. I’ll dress casually and comfortably. A pair of jeans and a cashmere top will do. I hear cashmere is a luxury material in the mortal realm. As for jeans, they must be a designer brand. With a few holes around the knees. The mortals think the holes are a fashion statement.”
Lorcan just stared at me, but his brow didn’t crease. He no longer wanted to pick a fight with me. He wouldn’t win anyway, and I had three other males to back me up.
“I appreciate that you didn’t frown at me this time, Lorcan,” I said. “That’s a big improvement. You come from the old world, so I don’t blame you much. But I’m a brand-new modern woman with novel ideas and plenty of independence. You’d better catch up with me if you want to stay my mate.”
He grimaced, but I had to be hard on him sometimes, since I didn’t want to outgrow him and then dump him. “A hot body can hold my interest for a while, but it won’t last forever,” I added incisively.
“Well said, sweetheart,” Alaric said with a roar of laughter. “I bet Lorcan has never heard such an instructive speech in his entire life. The vampire might be stuck in the old world, but you never need to worry about me. I’m most adaptive.”
“We’ll see,” I said, regarding him. “You might need to tone down your menace vibe a little. You scare people. Lorcan hides his viciousness sometimes, but you don’t even bother.”
“Do I scare you?” Alaric asked quietly.
I snorted. “Me? In your dreams.”
“Then why would I bother to make any change?” Alaric said. “I’m comfortable with who I am.”
“You’re hopeless,” I sighed, “but I guess I can learn to live with that.”
“So I’m the only one on your blacklist?” Lorcan asked, and then a determined look took over his storm-gray eyes. “I’m the only one who has claimed you. The process is irreversible.”
“Try me,” I said.
He regarded me darkly.
“You might want to adapt around Cass, Lorcan,” Reys said with a delightful sigh. “I understand that you never needed to charm any woman. They fought to be in your bed. You think you never have to bend and can always have your way. But you won’t get away with it with Cass.”
I narrowed my eyes at both Reys and Lorcan, not pleased with the insinuations about Lorcan and the other women.
Reys ignored me and continued. “Cass isn’t like any woman we’ve ever met. She’s cunning and free in spirit. She’ll never bend to you, or any of us, unless it fits her needs. There isn’t a single submissive bone in her. She’s just as much an alpha as any of us, and even more so, regardless of her youth.”
“And none of us can walk away from her, even if we try,” Lorcan said quietly, as if he’d tried.
“Cass is actually easygoing,” Reys added. “She only has strong opinions about food and fashion. Just give her what she wants, and we’ll have our peace.”
I frowned at Reys. He had totally misinterpreted me.
“I led armies into wars for an eon,” the High Lord of Night said. “And now I’m at a loss dealing with a girl.”
“You didn’t think of me as a little girl when you were on top of me,” I hissed.
Lorcan looked like he wanted to bang his head on the wall. It wouldn’t hurt him anyway. A vampire’s head was very hard.
The other males looked at me in sexual hunger as if they wanted to devour me.
I shivered.
I was intentionally being provocative since I wasn’t pleased with how they saw me. I didn’t like the gap and misunderstanding between us, and their ages of knowledge intimidated me and made me feel lacking.
I lashed out when I felt insecure and threatened.
“I know our mate is mostly ridiculous, but—” Pyrder said.
My face burned red, anger flashing in my eyes. My score had just gone lower and lower. “How am I so ridiculous?” I sneered.
Alaric chuckled.
“In a good way, Cass baby,” Pyrder said. “We’re ancient, jaded, and scarred beings, but you make us feel like big kids again. I feel like the boy I was when my twin and I first met Lorcan and Alaric and formed the brotherhood millennia ago.”
“You make us feel alive,” Reys said in amused voice.
“In that case—” I said as a knock disturbed the rest of my thoughts.
The door opened and Xihin poked his head in before his broad shoulder entered. He was as big as my mates, and everyone knew he was the only vampire, except Lorcan, whom I wouldn’t growl at. So the vampires often sent him in to deal with me.
In his large hand was a stack of clothes, with a pair of washed-out jeans on top.
“Thank you, Xihin,” I said.
Xihin grinned at me and I grinned back. Lorcan’s vampires were more efficient than Dario’s, and they’d prepared for me.
While I was arguing with my mates, Lorcan must have mentally ordered his minion to bring me the clothes I wanted. I took a mental note that top-ranking vampires could communicate telepathically at a distance.
Lorcan was learning to bend a little.
He took the clothes from Xihin and handed them to me. “Happy now?”
“Yep, but I don’t like your tone,” I said. “You’ll have a lot to learn to make a woman happy, Lorcan. You did the work, yet you still succeeded in irritating me with that condescending tendency.”
Xihin sucked in a breath. I bet he’d never seen anyone teach his High Lord a lesson or two. He withdrew at once to escape the crossfire and carefully closed the door behind him.
“We need to leave for the meeting after your change, dulcis.” Lorcan sighed in resignation.
I didn’t give him grief again since I’d gotten what I wanted, though I didn’t appreciate being rushed and given a command.
I wore my black leather top and jeans to the vampires’ meeting in a vast conference room.
No one offered me a drink. Since everyone looked so serious as if they were at a funeral, I didn’t even demand a cup of coffee. I’d grown addicted to the mortals’ coffee. I’d had two mugs already before we drove to Lorcan’s court, so I decided not to make a fuss over not being offered more.
The vampires lined up on one side of the long table. My three other mates and their core team members sat on the other side, with me between Reysalor and Alaric.
Lorcan sat at the head of the table since he was the host. Mistress Selena sat next to him, giving me the coldest stare in the world, sending chills slicing up my spine. I could tell she wanted me dead more than anything, just as Jade had once craved to bleed me out to my last drop.
I didn’t think Lorcan could sense the threat to me, since a woman was always more intuitive about another malic
ious woman. And my instincts had never been wrong. I returned a stinky eye to her whenever I felt her glacial glare in my direction.
Bring it on, bitch. I beckoned. I wouldn’t back down from a challenge, especially fighting for my male.
The attendees proceeded with introductions, followed by open discussions on gods, defenses, strategies, and current dire situations in the mortal and immortal realms. All that doom and gloom shit.
Then the high-class vampires sought to persuade their High Lord not to take a hopeless fight to the alien gods but retreat further into the shadows or the immortal realm like ShadesStar to preserve their race.
Reys’s fae warriors jumped up from their seats, yelling for the vampires to wake up and get real. “There’s nowhere for you to hide when the Olympian gods are done with the mortal world,” Hector said, and he would have pounded the table if it weren’t for his boss Reysalor’s warning look. “For your information, the gods are already seeking a way to breach the immortal realm.”
A vampire sneered. I waited for Hector to punch him, but he disappointed me.
And then, they drew out more long-winded debates.
I dozed off after that—maybe my morning coffee wasn’t strong enough—until my name was being shouted repeatedly around the table. Pyrder was saying that the brotherhood had found a secret weapon that could kill the gods, and that weapon was me.
I pretended to still be asleep.
“Her?” A vampire, who sneered earlier snickered this time, his version of vampiric politeness. “Sure, that little girl will kill the gods with her drools.”
All the other vampires roared with laughter, except Lorcan and Xihin.
The High Lord of Night kept his face expressionless. He seemed to want to hear out the thoughts of his men, or perhaps he just wouldn’t bother with defending me, not that I required him to.
Xihin snarled, “You’ll not laugh at his High Lord’s mate.”
Still, one single silvery laugh lingered, and that charmed peal came from Selena.
The vampires must have gotten used to poking fun at Lorcan’s previous women and gotten away with it, or they wouldn’t have been so bold. Even though Lorcan had introduced me as his mate in front of them, they figured I was just his newest shiny toy. Especially when Lorcan mentioned that I was also mated to his bonded brothers.
They thought I was a whore he’d brought to share with others.
“She won’t last, just like others,” Selena said. “She’ll be dumped like last year's cheap shoes.”
My non-vampire companions growled, and violence whipped the air. One more snapping line and there’d be pain or even death in the room.
Alaric’s fist opened, a lightning bolt eagerly waiting to spear the vampires on the opposite side of the table.
However, I wouldn’t let anyone upstage my show.
I peeled open an eye. “Talking about me?”
I yawned, spreading my arms. My air current lashed out, tossing all the vampires, except Lorcan and Xihin, to the walls.
The vampires widened their eyes before struggling to free themselves and hissing, uncomfortable with the legs of their chair or armrests half-glued to their suited asses. My air magic didn’t seem to give a fuck and pinned them tighter against the wall.
My non-vampire companions chuckled.
“Thank you for admiring my drooling,” I said. “I bet you’d appreciate a show after a long meeting.”
A stream of black fire whooshed out of me, circling the vampires in a half ring.
They tried to throw their heads back to put distance between my fire and their person, their eyes going all white in apprehension.
“My lord, will you allow the slut to treat us this way?” Selena asked, her gray eyes burning with icy steam.
“You’re lucky I allow you to speak at all,” I said. “But then, I’m all for freedom of speech, even though it’s overrated since it’s overly abused.”
“Selena, stop, if you still want to be the mistress of the court,” Xihin said. “Things will change from now on. Weren’t any of you listening when his High Lord said High Lady Cass Saélihn is his mate?”
“It can’t be!” Selena nearly shrieked. “The High Lord of Night would never want a street rat.”
Jezebel’s comments about me ending up a street rat without her flashed back to me. Anything that remotely reminded me of my mother brought out the worst in me. I heard a smack sound, and Selena snapped her head left and right as my air current slapped her cheeks.
“I let you all go this far because I wanted High Lady Saélihn to punish you first,” Lorcan said icily. “Disrespect her again, and I’ll tear your hearts out.”
“Try to hurt a hair on my mate’s head,” Alaric said matter-of-factly, “and I’ll do worse than yank out your hearts.”
The fae twins didn’t say anything, but their smiles to the vampires were chilly. Personally, I would rather hear threats than face those smiles.
My mates all knew that Lorcan’s rogue vampires had tried to kill me along with Dario’s goons in ShadesStar. They didn’t trust this lot in front of them, either.
But vampires were way less dangerous than the gods, so my other mates had listened to Lorcan’s idea and come to his court. They were also confident that I would be safe as long as I was within sight of one of them.
And I appreciated that the overbearing alpha males had let me defend myself first.
I sighed. Vampires understood power and cruelty, so I had to show my power to be at the top of the hierarchy. I also needed to pump fear into them, so they wouldn’t be like the horde of vampires in ShadesStar court who had tried to cut me to pieces.
However, I hadn’t expected Lorcan to play it out like this.
I thought I was cunning but, compared to my mates, I was but an ant looking up giant mountains. All of my mates were strategists with an eon of experience.
“Dulcis,” Lorcan said with a loving, rather than reproaching, voice. “I understand they offended you and got what they deserved. If it weren’t for my celebratory mood at having found my mate, I’d have punished them severely. However, in the future, I’d consider it a favor if you didn’t go around intimidating and hitting anyone who irritates you.”
“I don’t go around hitting anyone! I’m not a maniac!”
“Now, will you release them, dulcis?” Lorcan said softly.
“Under one condition,” I said in a bad mood.
Lorcan arched an eyebrow. “Which is?”
“I want to go shopping after the meeting,” I said. “I’m stressed out, and shopping cools my jets. Besides, I need five pairs of boots. You have to try on shoes in person to know if they fit.”
“Oh, no, not again,” Reysalor groaned.
“What happened when she went shopping?” Pyrder asked.
“She stayed in the mall the entire day,” Reys said. “She’s curious about everything. She’d have bags of buttered and salted popcorn and try to sneak into a theater without buying a ticket. And she’d try to taste every flavor of ice cream. It’ll need ten horses’ power to drag her away from a mall.”
“I like shopping, too,” Alaric said with a grin. “I’ll take Cass.”
Alaric had no idea what shopping with me was like, but I grinned at him for his courage. It was great to have many mates, because I could always find one who had a common interest with me.
“Can we get back on track? The meeting isn’t over!” Lorcan asked drily. “And, dulcis, will you kindly release my men? I think they’ve learned a lesson or two.”
I flicked my wrist dismissively and my magic lost interest in the vampires. They dropped to the floor with their chairs, and only through their supernatural reflexes did they land on their feet instead of their asses.
A few looked grumpy instead of grateful, and Selena’s stare was a death threat.
“I captured the God of Terror and I should have unleashed him on you instead of lifting my own fingers,” I said, flashing a sweet smile at the mistress before
I scanned the other vampires. “So you’ll be friendlier to me, knowing I’m not the worst kind. By the way, over ninety of your peers ambushed me in ShadesStar, hoping to cut my head off, and only one of them wasn’t burned to ashes. Do you want to know which one? My dearest mother.”
A flash of dark light lit Lorcan’s storm-gray eyes, and I caught regret, pain, and fury in them. He’d blamed himself for the attack on me.
Reys looked both incensed and amused. He was infuriated that Jezebel had gotten away but amused that I upped the numbers of attackers every time I retold the story. If I still remembered it correctly, the original number of assassins was around thirty.
“Is the God of Terror in our court, my lord?” Selena asked, distracting him from feeling sorry and protective of me.
“Locked in the fortified cell,” Lorcan said coldly.
A subtly peeved expression flitted over Selena’s gorgeous face. Evidently, she was unhappy that she’d been omitted from the security details. What would she expect? When Lorcan’s bonded brothers were all here, they became his tightest circle, and I was his mate, so naturally, I was in, too.
The other vampires looked unsettled that the terror god was among them, their faces paling more. No one liked Phobos so close, except me.
“How can we contain a god, my lord?” Selena said. “It’s never heard of.”
“High Lady Saélihn can control him,” Lorcan said, his gray eyes surveying his subjects. “Sebastian and Selena, kneel and apologize to my mate, for you both offended her.”
When Lorcan called me High Lady Saélihn, it sounded seriously like the real deal.
Sebastian, the vampire who had mocked me, went down on his knees right away. “High Lady Saélihn, I misjudged you. It won’t happen again. From now on, I’ll serve you as I’ve served his High Lord.”
This one changed his attitude in a dime, but he seemed sincere. I waved him to get up. I wasn’t as mean as they’d assumed.
Selena stood tall. “My lord, I fought for a position beside you and earned it. I’ve never failed you until today I called your new girl a slut. She might be a weapon that can kill the gods, which has yet to be proven, but I’ve proved my loyalty and usefulness to you for centuries.”