Darkest Misery

by Tracey Martin

  The Upper Council satyr smiled down on me, and the effect was dizzying. My head clouded with his pheromones, and my lungs constricted.

  At the meeting this afternoon, he’d been working none of his power on me, and I’d seen him as just another satyr. Another arrogant satyr. Someone I could have decked for his terribly timed sense of humor.

  That man was gone. Too late, I realized Claudius had only been toying with me the first time we’d met. Now, when I gaped at him, my body was overwhelmed by his beauty and the primal lust he aroused. It seemed to settle on my skin like dew.

  My tongue swept against my teeth, and my knees trembled. I wanted to kneel before him. Take him in my mouth. Already, I could taste the salty sweetness of his skin. Picture myself closing my lips around his cock, feel his hands pressing me closer, deeper, hear myself moaning as I pleasured him.

  And even though some part of me knew he was inserting these images and desires in my mind, I couldn’t fight them off. My immunity to pred power was shot to hell. I ached for him something fierce.

  “Let me in, Jessica.” He notched his head to the side. “I came to apologize for offending you earlier.”

  “So apologize.” The protective glyphs the Gryphons had drawn on me warmed, but their magical shield proved thin.

  Wet wind gusted outside, and Claudius’s dark eyes gazed at me endearingly. “I thought I just did. Are you going to let me in?”

  No. Absolutely not. Yet my traitorous right hand was releasing the chain lock, and my left was sliding over my breasts, clutching the fabric of my shirt and rubbing my hard nipples. I shivered.

  The chain fell against the door, and I stepped back to let Claudius in. He shut the door behind him.

  Realizing what my left hand was doing, I dropped it back to my side. My heart pounded, burning lust mixed with increasing fear. I should not have let him in. This could go bad so very fast, and I’d enjoy every second of it right until he left and I had to deal with the fallout. Lucen wouldn’t care if I had sex with Claudius, but I would. No matter what my body was telling me, I did not want him touching me.

  For the first time in a long while, I remembered very clearly why I’d been scared of preds. Why I’d stayed away from Lucen and denied my feelings for him for so long. When you couldn’t tell a person no, you had no ability to tell them yes.

  Backed against the wall, I inched away from Claudius. “Since you think you’ve already apologized, you can either give me another reason for staying or you can leave.”

  He chuckled. “You think you could kick me out?”

  “I’m willing to try.”

  “Someone needs to teach you manners. That’s not how a satyr speaks to her superiors. This is the second time today you’ve been insulting.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest, sensing he’d been staring at it. “Second time you’ve been too. Don’t be a jackass, and I’ll be nice.”

  Claudius turned his back on me, but I could see his shoulders shaking with amusement as he wandered deeper into Lucen’s apartment. He’d changed out of the clothes he’d worn to the meeting earlier, opting for a tight black shirt and a pair of jeans that hugged his ass nicely.

  Bad Jess. Stop staring at his ass. You’re as terrible as he is.

  “How am I being a jackass?” He stopped in front of Sweetpea’s cage, and I was pleased to see the dragon growl at him.

  “You’re messing with my head.”

  He tossed me a glance over his shoulder. “Messing with it sounds very unsystematic. I’m testing you, Jessica. I want to see how much of a satyr you are.”

  “Not enough for you. You made that clear.”

  “No. And yet your very human reaction to me does intrigue. I’ve been alive a long time, you know. I’ve fucked kings and queens, heroes and villains, Gryphons and priests, and so many boring satyrs. But never someone with your unique magical signature. I’d like to remedy that.”

  Oh, God. My body wanted to remedy that too. Traitor, I silently cursed it, but it didn’t care. Liquid heat pooled between my legs the moment Claudius uttered the word fuck like some erotic and terrible Pavlovian response.

  If he was determined, there would be nothing I could do about it. My body didn’t want me doing anything. My brain was screaming, Oh, hell no, but the stupid cluster of nerves between my legs was yelling, Oh, please yes.

  The nerves got the better of my legs, and I shuffled forward then grasped the stairwell baluster, breathing hard. With one hand I reached under my shirt and grabbed the pendant Lucen had given me, clutching it tight, as though it could drive off these thoughts. All it did was up the aching in my breasts as my skin brushed them. My stance widened as I leaned against the railing.

  Way to go, body. Just spread your legs for him.

  Luckily, my brain had better control of my mouth than my limbs. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  Okay, so maybe its control of my mouth was lacking a little force.

  Sweetpea’s cage was near the stairs, and it only took Claudius a couple steps to reach me. “You don’t think? I’m doing you an honor.”

  I laughed shakily. “Why am I not surprised you believe you’re that good?”

  “You are feisty.” He came up behind me, his body heat enveloping me. “I’m going to enjoy listening to you come and begging for more.”

  I held my breath as his hands lifted my shirt and slid around my waist. His touch was light and cool, and his fingertips sent sparks down my skin into my groin. I squirmed in his grip. Though I wanted to tell him to stop, my brain was disassociating from my body. And when he leaned over me and inhaled deeply at the crook of my neck, I actually moaned.

  “Again,” he whispered in my ear, and his breath was fire. His lips brushed my earlobe, and his hard body and a massive erection pressed against my ass. My legs spread wider, begging to take him in, and I was helpless not to do as he commanded. “Good girl.”

  Claudius pulled me away from the railing and shoved me against the wall. His fingers dug into my hips, slipping under the waistband of my jeans. My hands grabbed hold of his shirt, but I couldn’t decide whether to push him away or rip it off.

  “A true satyr wouldn’t be fighting me,” he whispered, bending in closer. I closed my eyes, intoxicated by his scent and enthralled with the sensation of his cock on my stomach. I rubbed myself against him, and he licked my collarbone and up my throat.

  I gasped, struggling for words. “A true human couldn’t fight you either.”

  That seemed to give him pause. “Your resistance is unusual, I admit. But I never said you were a pure human.”

  He withdrew suddenly, and I thought I might have won. Feared I might have too. My body was flushed from head to toe, and my breaths were nothing but a series of jagged gasps. Looking at Claudius’s hard stomach muscles and the teasing bulge in his pants was going to drive me insane. I had to kick him out while I had a chance, but I couldn’t do it.

  He smiled slowly. “Dezzi told me what you could do. Let’s see how strong you are, shall we?”

  “What are you…?”

  I crumpled to the stairs, and a horrible reality swept over me. Claudius hadn’t just been working his wickedly tempting mojo on me. He’d been arousing me enough to have laid the groundwork for a pred-addict bond.

  My nerves danced, and Claudius watched me writhe with an expression of such hunger that it fed my desire. I had to close my eyes, and only then could I sense his grip around my soul. It was surprisingly—or maybe unsurprisingly—pleasant. When the furies and sylphs had mentally assaulted me, it felt like a vise squeezing my head. With Claudius, his magic felt more like a pair of very skillful hands playing with my body.

  But he was still a pred, and I knew what to do with preds who tried to addict me. Test this.

  I stopped resisting and let him in. All at once, the whole of his power flooded me. I cr
ied out, grasping at the stairs as it crescendoed through me, and I exploded in the least satisfying orgasm ever. My body felt like it rocked forever, but the release lasted a mere second.

  I opened my eyes to see him wetting his lips in triumph as he watched me. My need for him was unabated. If I had the ability to stand, I’d have gone straight for his jeans, torn them off and taken his erection for myself. There was almost nothing left of me but pure, animal instinct.

  Almost.

  So instead I grabbed at his power. This was my test, after all. He wanted to see how strong I was, so I’d show him.

  In my mind’s eye, the bond connecting us was a circuit, a river of power with a current flowing almost entirely from me into him but for one measly tributary that closed the loop and connected us in the other direction. It was on the tributary that I focused my attention and yanked.

  I felt the tug instantly, letting me know I’d snagged something. But unlike when I’d used this trick on Red-eye the fury or one of the sylphs, the circuit didn’t reverse so easily. Claudius’s pull was stronger. Much stronger. And my body didn’t want to fight him or the glorious desire that immersed it. I wanted to give in and give up, let this struggle go and let him have his way with me.

  Seething, I fought against myself as much as against him, and I tightened my grip. The current faltered and slowed, but it didn’t reverse. Yet even that much effort made my head shriek in pain.

  Clenching my jaw, I tried again, and I got the distinct sense that Claudius wasn’t fighting me. This time when I pulled, a new tributary split off and more of his power slammed into me. The throbbing in my head picked up tempo. As good as my body felt, my head felt awful—a splitting pain like my skull had cracked open.

  Then he released me.

  I gasped, and my eyes watered in agony as I hunched over. “What the hell?”

  “I have to say that was disappointing.”

  I winced as I raised my gaze to meet his. “I hate you.”

  Claudius threw his head back and laughed. “Why? Because you can’t keep me out of your head like you do the others? That’s hardly my fault. You’re not as powerful as Dezzi led me to believe, nor—I’m guessing—as powerful as the Gryphons think you are. How do they expect you to stand up to the originals if you can’t even fight me?”

  I whimpered and rubbed my temples. “I have no clue what they expect me to do.”

  He knelt next to me and placed his hands on my arms. The desire that had grown cold in me, overpowered by my splitting head, returned. His warmth crept up my arms, and my pulse quickened once more. “You fear me, don’t you? I can sense it. That’s good. Fear goes a long way toward engendering the respect you owe me. Plus it can make other undertakings much more exciting.”

  Claudius ran his thumb over my lips. I was tempted to bite it, but that would likely give him the wrong idea. “Can’t tonight, honey. You gave me a headache.”

  “I could make it go away.”

  “You could. It’s called leaving.” The apartment door opened, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Jess?”

  Claudius stood as Lucen appeared in the living room entryway. “You missed our tête-a-tête, Lucen. Jessica was showing me what she could do.”

  “Was she?” His voice was cold.

  I glanced up at him, wanting to throw my arms around him but too weak to move. His face softened.

  “Unfortunately, she’s not as impressive as I was hoping,” Claudius continued. “Being a strange human does not make her a satyr. More like an imperfect imitation of one. Though I imagine she has uses, that’s hardly a reason to claim her as one of our own. I’ll need to speak with Dezzi about her.”

  “Her is here, you know,” I said through gritted teeth.

  Claudius blew me a kiss. “We can try again another time.” Then he nodded at a stunned-looking Lucen and left.

  I flipped him off as the door shut.

  Lucen dropped the bag he’d been holding and rushed over to me. “Little siren, are you okay? What did he do to you?”

  I launched myself forward and fell onto him. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I felt better although I wasn’t sure what throbbed worse—my head or the residual lust Claudius left behind. Either way, for the love of dragons, it was a terrible and unnatural combination.

  “He said he was testing me.” I burrowed my face against Lucen’s shoulder. “First he seemed intent on sex, and when I resisted, he decided to test how strong my resistance to his magic was. He addicted me.”

  Lucen lifted my head and clasped my cheeks. His eyes burned green. “He did what?”

  “I couldn’t reverse the bond. I tried, and that’s why my head is killing me. It didn’t work on him.”

  Lucen’s whole body shook with rage. He pulled me closer, hands entwining in my hair. “I’m going to kill him. If he didn’t let you go…”

  I’d have been screwed. The fear Claudius sensed in me rose to the surface, and I clutched Lucen tighter. “And you wonder why I used to be so afraid of you all.”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Lucen said again. He took my mouth in his and kissed me hard and slow.

  A moan climbed up my throat, all my unfulfilled need begging for his touch. I pressed myself closer, slipping my legs around him. When he released my lips, I nibbled at his chin, rubbed my face against his throat. “He started this. I want you to finish it. Make what I’m feeling yours.”

  Lucen set me back on the stairs, his hand trailing down my face and coming to rest cupping my breast. I inhaled sharply as he drew his thumb across my aching nipple. “Are you hurt?”

  “A headache, but I’ll live.”

  His hand moved on, sliding down my stomach and pausing at my waistband. “Let me get you something for the pain.” He bent over, lifted my shirt and gently kissed my bare stomach.

  My whole body quivered. “You’d better hurry. And then maybe carry me to a better spot because stairs are ouch, but I don’t think I can move on my own yet.”

  Lucen unbuttoned my jeans and kissed me lower, eliciting more heat between my legs. “Remember how I once said that I don’t care who you fuck? I’ve changed my mind. If he ever touches you again, I’m going to feed him his genitals.”

  Belatedly, I wished I hadn’t taken off my weapons when I got to Lucen’s. Maybe they would serve to deter Claudius next time. He might be too powerful for me to resist magically, but I was fairly certain salamander-forged steel could still kill him.

  “I’d like to see that,” I told Lucen, struggling upright. “Better yet, I’d like to be the one who does it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The pain-relief charm Lucen gave me after my encounter with Claudius worked faster than any human-made remedy. When added to his own brand of spectacular sex and the Thai food he’d brought for dinner, I’d recovered my strength.

  Or I thought I had. When I took off the charm later, my head still ached. Sleep helped some more, and by the next day I was back to normal. That it had taken almost twenty-four hours for me to get there didn’t bode well for future confrontations.

  I had a lot of time to dwell on what my weakness meant. Theo finished my charms the next morning, and I didn’t object to as many protective or defensive spells as he felt compelled to add. My torso and arms were covered in a series of glyphs by the time I put my shirt on. After yesterday’s encounter, however, I felt less than reassured by them.

  As usual, I met with Tom, Ingrid and the others before the meeting, and I gave them a not-very-graphic rundown of what happened with Claudius. Their disappointment was palpable. Apparently, given how easily I’d flipped the bonds on other preds, they’d thought I could do better.

  At least one good thing came out of my dismal failure. Because of my inability to fight off Claudius, I spared Grace the tedium of attending the day’s meeting. Ingrid was growing eager to get her involve
d, but thanks to my difficulties, she opted to hold Grace back a while longer to better educate her.

  I questioned Tom about Mitch and Olef, and predictably learned nothing useful about the former and only more confusion about the latter. The lab had positively identified the red feather found in Olef’s apartment as belonging to a magi. But which magi, and did it matter?

  I couldn’t believe Olef’s murder was unconnected to the prophecy, and I suspected the feather was a false clue. Tom didn’t disagree, but the Gryphons had to be thorough and investigate every lead just in case.

  With some trepidation and no small amount of dread, we arrived at the hotel for day three of the meeting from hell. Gunthra inquired after my health while the Gryphons set up the one thing certain to horrify humans, preds and magi alike—a PowerPoint presentation on the Vessels.

  The High Council goblins watched me curiously, and now that I knew enough to fear them, I stayed as far away as possible. “I’m fine, thanks,” I said to Gunthra, hoping she only asked out of politeness and not for a more sinister reason.

  The satyrs arrived next, and I dug my nails into my palms, hoping the completed glyph Theo had drawn was powerful enough to hide my anger and disgust from Claudius. Somehow I suspected not.

  Devon had returned with them today, and the way he and Lucen circled around me like a couple of guard dogs was enough to let me know Lucen had shared what happened with his best friend. While I appreciated their protective instincts, it all felt rather suffocating. Especially since if Claudius wanted to harass me, all their hovering wouldn’t actually do any good.

  And then we waited. And waited some more. I sipped my increasingly cool coffee, more convinced with each passing minute that, after what happened yesterday, neither the harpies nor Xander were going to attend.

  Ten minutes beyond the agreed-upon start time, Ingrid gave up and called for the meeting to begin. The tension in the air settled a bit while Tom reviewed the information we knew about the Vessels, including where some of them were rumored to have been hidden, but once he finished and asked for others to share their knowledge, an uncomfortable silence descended on the room.