Ill Will

by Cate Corvin

  “I’ll be waiting for you.” Something brushed my hair, light as a feather, and then he pulled away. His footsteps were swallowed by the darkness.

  I settled against the wall to wait, peering through the hairline crack of the secret doorway. It took them another half an hour, but finally Aislin Liddell’s cautious figure moved into the antechamber, the sunlight casting blue highlights in her dark hair. “It’s gone! Those sneaky fuckers!”

  A chorus of groans met her voice: almost all of Lux was with her, stumbling into the antechamber covered in bruises, dirt, slime, and other unnamable things. They’d really been through the wringer.

  And that was my cue. I slipped away from the door, moving as quickly as possible while still being silent and careful. The darkness was so complete it felt like it was physically pressing against my eyeballs.

  On our way in, I’d counted one hundred paces from the secret door to the edge of the snake pit. When I neared ninety, I pulled out the lighter, and flicked it on.

  It sparked and sputtered out.

  Panic lanced through me as I shook the lighter and tried again. It sparked every time I flicked it, until the tip of my thumb was aching.

  The lighter was nearly empty. I’d have to cross the tiny slip of a bridge over the snake pits in the dark. Their rasp filled the air in a low, buzzing churn, almost seeming to grow faster in proportion to my panic.

  It was just a bridge. I could crawl across the damn thing on my hands and knees if I wanted to be the crybaby Ermengol was convinced we were.

  Or I could strap my balls on and just walk across the damn thing. Realistically, walking over a pit of snakes was one of the least horrific things that I’d ever be forced to do.

  I felt around with my boot until I found the edge of the pit and the bridge, and stood poised for a long moment envisioning the straightness of it, how many steps it had taken to cross. A few deep breaths later, my heart had stopped pounding, and my hands were still.

  Something scraped against stone behind me when I was five steps across the bridge. From the direction of the antechamber.

  I froze in place, listening for any further movement, but my stalker was a step ahead of me, like they knew precisely where I was.

  They grabbed my hair and yanked me around, and I found myself pinwheeling on the edge of the bridge, my heart in my throat, fear flooding my limbs. A throaty, feminine laugh filled the air. “Thanks for kicking my tits in, Gash. Why don’t you try this on for size?”

  Kicking her tits- oh, fuck. Beatrice Glover, from Lux, whom I’d taken out with extreme prejudice in our first training session.

  She punched me in the chest and I fell, clawing out to grab her and missing.

  I hit the pit of snakes and they churned under me, hissing in my ears and exploding in all directions. Their winding, sinewy bodies coiled around my arms and legs, over my throat, over my face-

  I bit back a scream of blind terror and disgust, every muscle in my body locking up tight. Warm, slick scales twined over me as Beatrice laughed overhead and vanished.

  I was alone. Alone, the snakes writhing under me like a living bed of scale and muscle, slowly swallowing my limbs whole.

  My stomach threatened to empty itself but I swallowed back a mouthful of saliva as prickles ran over my skin from head to toe. First, I needed to sit up, then I was going to climb out of here without puking.

  I forced my limbs to loosen, drawing in a sharp breath when a snake wrapped itself around my wrist and squeezed before slithering away again. There were so many I couldn’t even tell if there was a solid floor under us, but my clothes protected me from most of their awful, scaly bodies.

  A tongue flicked my cheek and I stopped moving for another breathless moment, my heart hammering painfully.

  They were horrible, but they hadn’t bitten me yet. I wasn’t being strangled to death. If I could deal with blood on my hands and dead bodies, I could deal with snakes. I’d just sob and puke my guts out later.

  The snakes writhed alarmingly as I pushed myself precariously to my feet, sinking thigh-deep in the pulsing mass… and touching nothing solid. Only more snakes.

  “You’ve got this, Tori,” I whispered, my voice cracked and shaking. “Find the wall.”

  It took some strange maneuvering, sliding through the snakes rather than walking. I fell flat on my stomach like them a few times, groaning at the sensation of writhing coils under my chest and stomach, but eventually I felt the harsh scrape of stone under my fingers and almost cried.

  Something surged under the mass of snakes and my heart shot into my throat. They all hissed, slithering around as the pressure around my legs increased. There was something a lot bigger than a blacksnake in the pit with us.

  I was completely reliant on sound and touch in the pitch-blackness, and when that big something broke through the seemingly endless layer of smaller snakes, I thought I might be on the verge of genuinely losing my mind. Whatever lived under the pit of these disgusting, slithering monsters… I didn’t want to see it.

  It bumped against my hip, slid around my ass, the smooth contraction of muscle gliding against me.

  My nails tore as I scrabbled at the wall, searching desperately for any tiny handhold to lift myself out of here, but the gritty walls were flat.

  The thing nudged me again, and something that wasn’t a snake gripped my jacket, pulling me back from the wall. I slapped at whatever had a hold of me, biting back a sob of desperation- and felt hands.

  The giant snake reared up and crashed down on me, driving me face-first into its smaller brethren with a wave of choking brimstone stench. A smaller serpent wriggled against my lips as the demonic parent slid over me, a hundred vestigial hands plucking at my hair and clothes.

  It dragged me through the snakes, flipping me over and sending a shower of the little fuckers flying, and I raised my hands in front of my face like a shield.

  The demon wriggled against me, grinding me into the smaller snakes that no longer seemed so horrifying, and brought its head down to mine. The edges of its jaw scraped over my fingertips, and I expected to feel the soft, smooth underside of snakeskin.

  Instead, I felt a chin-like ridge… leading to a moist slit, and nostrils that huffed brimstone-scented air in my face. Two round orbs glared at me through my fingers, glowing with their own internal fire that lit the tiny space between us.

  A long, forked tongue flickered out and slid between my fingers, touching my lips and cheeks… tasting me.

  My mind seemed to break for a moment. I was sure I actually heard the glass of my sanity fracture and shatter.

  “WILL! SURA!” The demon’s mouth opened wider, writhing over me like it enjoyed the jagged sounds of my screams.

  Its jaw unhinged under my palms, the wetness of its mouth swallowing my hands. I couldn’t stop screaming, couldn’t think, couldn’t move…

  A tiny body slithered through my hair and wrapped around my ear as another slipped beneath my shirt, wriggling past my collar and tie. Their demon-father pushed down on me, angling its head to swallow me whole.

  Warm light blazed through the dark and the demon reared back, its eyes squeezed tightly shut. With a grating screech it released me, plunging to the side and diving below its endless nest of children.

  I laid in the snakes, gasping for breath as they slid over me in their own blind panic, displaced in a wave by the burrowing snake-demon.

  A dark shape jumped down in the nest and I screamed again, throwing myself to the side, but strong hands gripped me and pulled me upright. It was Will, gripping me around the waist and touching my face, forcing me to look at him.

  “Victoria. Stop screaming.” I took a shuddering breath, tears spilling over with my relief. “I’ve got you.”

  Will’s face was beautiful in the low light, but my head automatically jerked down, searching the snakes writhing around my legs for their father. He tilted my face back up. “No. Keep your eyes up, Tori. It’s gone.”

  I nodded frantically,
hair spilling over my face in a wild mess. “It’s gone,” I repeated, my breath threatening to speed into hyperventilation again. But it wasn’t gone. It was right under our feet.

  Will nodded. “It’s gone. Sura’s got us.”

  I dimly realized there was a rope, and Will’s grip on me wasn’t to keep me from shattering to pieces. He wrapped it around his wrist and it jerked us upwards. I lunged at Will and wrapped my arms around his neck, nails digging into his leather jacket, terrified I’d be left behind in my literal living nightmare.

  He squeezed me tightly as Sura yanked us up over the side, shedding snakes the whole way. I didn’t release Will until he’d pulled us over the side of the bridge, and then I slid forward on my belly until I reached the wide expanse of the hallway, my hands shaking the entire way.

  When I was safe, I collapsed face-first in the dirt floor, trembling all over. Large hands enveloped my shoulders. “Tori. Let’s get you out of here.”

  Sura sounded like he was talking from very far away. Black blotches bloomed in front of my eyes. “I think I’m going to pass out,” I mumbled.

  Which was precisely what I did next.

  I came to with most of Tenebris and Lux standing around me and Professor Ermengol kneeling next to my head, an uncorked vial of smelling salts under my nose.

  “She’ll live,” she announced, tucking the vial away. “Get up, Holmwood, that won’t be your last time in a Naga pit if you want to lay around all day.”

  I scrambled to my feet, burning with shame that I’d passed out like a brand-new slayer after their first kill. Sura grabbed my shoulders, steadying me, and I looked away from Aislin Liddell’s sympathetic gaze.

  Beatrice Glover smirked, her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyes I did meet. I hoped she understood just how deeply she’d fucked up today. Next time I met her on the training grounds, it wasn’t just her tits I was going to kick in.

  “So? Who fetched my blood-ruby?”

  Will silently pulled the ruby out of his pocket and handed it to Professor Ermengol. “We did.”

  The professor tucked the glowing stone in a velvet pouch. “Good enough for today, darlings. Get her out of here before she pukes on my grass, Godalming.”

  “Come on, Tori,” Sura said, leading me to the door. He walked me all the way back to my room, uncharacteristically quiet. My stomach was still churning, the rasp of scales on my skin so fresh in my mind I was almost convinced there were still little snakes crawling over me.

  Will stepped around Sura to open my door for me. “We need a moment alone,” he said, his voice tight, and Sura gave him a long, hard look before he nodded and backed off.

  My stepbrother herded me into my room, and as soon as the door closed, I stripped off my jacket and tore off my tie, fumbling at the buttons down the front of my shirt. I had to get the feeling of the Naga off my skin, no matter who was in here, or I’d lose my mind and the contents of my stomach.

  Will strode into the bathroom while I was still unbuckling my pants, and the pipes groaned like they always did when he started the shower for me.

  I kicked off my boots and finally stood shivering in my black lace bra and panties. There were no snakes left in my clothes, but my skin was rippled with goosebumps. “What do you need, Will?” My teeth chattered from the delayed shock. “I’m not getting all the way undressed until you leave.”

  He dropped his jacket on my bed, pulled his tie over his head, and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I’m getting in with you.”

  I could barely breathe as he dropped his shirt on the pile and unbuckled his pants, sliding them down over his hips and muscled thighs. When he stepped out, he was wearing only boxer briefs that outlined things my imagination would have to file away for later.

  He pushed me into the bathroom, pulled the pins out of my unwinding bun until my hair spilled down my back, and tugged me under the hot water, holding me against his chest.

  For a few seconds I considered shoving myself away, but I was shaking with full-body chills despite the heat of the water and Will’s skin, and the hard, dense muscle under my face and breasts felt far too good to let go, stepbrother or not.

  He leaned against the wall, making a tiny noise at the coldness of the tile, and let me melt against him. The water pounded over my head and back in a soothing waterfall.

  I tentatively wrapped my arms around Will’s waist, unable to resist running my hand over his broad back, his tense muscles clearly delineated under my palms. He shifted under me with a hissed breath, his hands on my shoulders pushing me away, but that created too much space, and I desperately needed his warmth to stop shaking.

  I pushed up against him, more concerned with not losing my safe haven than with the fact that we had barely anything between us, and felt why he’d moved. His cock was hard as iron and hugging him tighter only ground me against him.

  Will’s fingers dimpled my shoulders. “Tori…” His breath was ragged. Sparkling drops of water clung to his eyelashes.

  “I just need you to hold me, Will.” My voice was raspy and sore from screaming. “Please.”

  I didn’t care that it was Will Godalming holding me while I pulled myself back together, or that part of me hated him and how much he tried to piss me off. There were no demons, snakes, or demon-snakes in his arms, and it felt like the safest place in the world to be.

  Ironic, given how much he despised me.

  His heartbeat sped up under my cheek, but he wrapped his arms around my arms and back and hugged me closer, so every inch of skin was touching. His hardness pressed against my lower belly, long and thick, and I shifted a little. Just enough to draw a strangled gasp out of him. In a sick sort of way, it felt good to be the torturer for once.

  But Will’s wanting sent desire spiraling through me, and my nipples pebbled despite the heat of the water.

  “Stop moving, Tori,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I slid my hands upwards over his back and hooked my fingers over his broad shoulders, giving a little wiggle to get into place. Perfect. It’d take a crowbar to pry me off my rock.

  His heart was thumping just under my cheek, water running in rivulets over the hollow of his throat and down his chest. When I wriggled, his arms tightened, almost crushing the breath out of me, and his hips jerked forward.

  Breath rushed out of me and need boiled over from somewhere deep inside, a ravenous, aching hunger for him.

  “Make me,” I growled, and tipped my head up to run my tongue over his neck, tracing the limned tendon under his golden skin.

  He tilted his head forward with a groan and yanked the band of my bra, tearing the hooks right out, and slid his hands over my waist to the lace panties just clinging to my hips. “This isn’t why I came here,” he said, pupils dilated to points in that sea of jade. “I wanted to be here for you.”

  “This is being here for me.” I released his shoulder and shimmied out of my bra, letting it drop to the shower floor, and hooked my fingers in the waistband of his boxer briefs.

  I hesitated, torn between desperate lust and trepidation. Will hated me.

  But he also trusted me.

  He’d said I was useless, unwanted baggage.

  And yet he had his hands all over me whenever no one else was around. I blinked water out of my eyes, trying to figure out how and where everything had gone sideways.

  “Why would you want to be here? You can’t stand me.” I looked up into his water-beaded face. “You make no sense, Will Godalming.”

  A muscle worked in his jaw. He pushed a strand of wet hair out of my face, running his thumb roughly over my cheekbone. “You make no sense either, Victoria Holmwood.”

  I couldn’t do this. He was too volatile, and I couldn’t stand not knowing where I stood with someone… especially someone who wouldn’t even deny his ill will towards me, who didn’t even want me here. I slid my thumbs out of the band of his boxer briefs.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he whispered roughly, pushing me agai
nst the tiled wall with a massive thigh shoved between my legs. That gnawing ache was back, my heart pounding in my throat as pleasant shivers ran through me.

  “Wherever the fuck I please. You don’t get to run my life just because you’re the prefect.” A flush of anger bloomed behind the desperate need, but it felt distant and trivial. My thumbs were back in his waistband like I’d never removed them at all. “And maybe I hate you too, Will.”

  Will ducked his head, his lips finding my neck and nibbling the tender flesh. “Yeah? Tell me how much you hate me, then.”

  “A lot,” I whispered, sucking in a breath. His teeth grazed my earlobe, danced over my shoulder, and he bit down just hard enough to dimple the skin. “I think you’re a grade-A prick who cares about nothing but his reputation.”

  His teeth pressed down harder, then they were gone, his lips moving over the line of my collarbone. “Keep going.”

  “You’re cruel and cold. You wouldn’t even give me a chance to try to fit in.”

  Will paused at the hollow of my throat, and ran his tongue down, tilting his head to catch one pebbled nipple between his lips. He cupped my breast and my waist, fingers trembling minutely.

  “You play stupid, juvenile pranks,” I gasped, trying and failing to keep my back from arching, my nails sunk into his shoulders. Every swirl of his tongue around that sensitive flesh sent a shiver through me. “I’ve never felt so alone as I did while living in your mansion full of people. Nobody dared talk to me while you were around.”

  He suckled my nipple and released it, sliding to his knees and running his hand over my stomach. He hooked his fingers in my panties and slid them down over my hips till they puddled around my ankles.

  My heart was hammering in my throat. Will’s hair was almost black with water and I ran my fingers through it, every fiber in my body taut as his tongue slid downwards.

  “You’re such a heartless bastard.” My words hitched, became a moan when he pushed between my folds and ran over my clit in a sure, smooth stroke. His own groan vibrated against my thighs and my fingers tightened in his hair. “A malicious, unfeeling- oh, god- calculating fucker.”