A few times, I caught myself staring as she tore into her food. I couldn’t imagine the physical pain she could inflict on anyone who crossed her. In further testament to her power, all six of our dogs were crowded around her feet under the table. If I hadn’t been around Daddy for such a long time, his sister would have scared the shit out of me. She lacked the kind demeanor my father had. She was cold. Powerful, but cold.
I don’t know what she was trying to communicate to me in the moment our eyes held contact, but I know what I felt. I responded to her power. Not so much her size and her strength, but the implications of what she could do just using her mind. My body responded. My cunt swelled and became wet. My nipples ached and I had to stop myself from touching them through the fabric of my dress. My arousal made me uncomfortable. Uncomfortable and curious.
But I wasn’t sure if I could trust what I was feeling. She was more demon than I had experienced before.
When she looked away, I found myself squirming in my seat. I was sweating and my breath was short. After some sort of agreement that even more raw meat was in order, I asked Mama if I could be excused. I couldn’t stay in the same room with Paeno a moment longer.
“You feeling okay, angel?” Mama asked.
“I’m fine. I’m just a little sleepy. I think I’ll turn in.”
“My princess is working hard at university,” Daddy finally said so I could understand. Again, Paeno simply nodded as she ripped into another large chunk of meat. Blood dripped from her claws. Faraut would have to get rid of that tablecloth.
“I’ll have some dessert sent up. Okay, baby?” Mama offered.
“I’d like that. Thank you.” I would have kissed my parents before I left, but I would have had to walk past Paeno twice to make the rounds and make my exit. She was making me too uneasy. I settled for a quick good night and took off for my room. Surprisingly, Gus toddled after me.
*
I was cuddled up with Gus passed out on my feet when Mama knocked on my door again. I called out for her to come in and quickly sat up when I saw she wasn’t alone. Leo and Kepper beat her through the door. And Paeno lingered in the hall behind her. Her face was just visible. Our eyes held for another long moment and the calm balance my body had reclaimed in being away from her was immediately dashed. I swallowed and subtly rubbed my thighs together.
“She wants to talk to you,” Mama whispered-shouted across the room as if Paeno had forgotten the battery for her hearing aid at home.
“Yeah, um, come in.” I climbed out of bed and watched as Paeno ducked her huge body through the door frame.
“I’ll just be…” Mama pointed down to her bedroom.
I took my eyes off Paeno long enough to nod and shoo her out the door.
Paeno took short, oddly delicate steps around my bedroom. The times Daddy was in demon form, he walked the same way when he wasn’t trying to knock furniture and lamps over. I sat back on my bed with Gus and Kepper while she looked around. She clinked the glass frame over a picture of Mama and me when I was a little girl. She picked up my ABO sweatpants and sniffed the crotch. She purred with slight satisfaction. I tried not to make a face.
Eventually, she turned to me. When she spoke, the strange bass in her voice seemed to cause her words to vibrate. “Your father-bourne tried to kill me.” I didn’t think she would lead with that, but okay. My real father, Lamont Wilkes, was the ambassador to demons in Asia. In a horribly devised plot, he planned to murder Paeno with the help of a group of rogue vampires who were already under suspicion for feeding from unbound humans. Even though he’d dealt with Daddy many times before, Lamont Wilkes somehow forgot every single power demons have, like mind reading and the ability to teleport. Daddy had done a merciful deed by asking Paeno if he could handle Lamont’s execution.
“But he failed,” I replied. And now you’re in my bedroom and I’m afraid of what you might do to me. Knowing of Paeno and being near her were such different things.
“He failed. I did not know I would want his spawn in such a way. You want me as well.” So this was Daddy’s match for me. Not a human or a vampire, but the most powerful bourne-demon on the planet. I wasn’t sure what that suggested about my future or the ego I presented. Paeno was right, though. I was attracted to her, if attraction can describe lusting inexplicably after someone who could easily scratch my face off. I couldn’t explain what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t accept a normal, stable relationship with a human woman. I needed so much more than what another person could be.
“You enjoy my gifts.” She reached out with a long talon and pointed over my shoulder to Gus. “He is your favorite.” His ears perked up and his head cocked to the side as if he knew we were talking about him. I gave him a gentle scratch under his chin.
“Yes, he’s a good dog,” I said.
“You will show yourself to me.” I turned back to Paeno.
“You want me to take off my clothes?”
She dipped her large head in a heavy gesture. “You will show yourself to me.” Her tone had changed. It wasn’t a request. Obedient as always, I started with my T-shirt and pulled it over my head. My bra was next, then my pajama pants and my underwear. I stood still with my hands at my sides. Only Cleo had seen me naked like this, but she wasn’t here now.
“You will open your eyes.” I hadn’t closed them on purpose. When I did as she asked, she was only a foot away, towering over me.
“You are afraid.”
“Yes.”
“You are not in danger.”
“I know.”
“And you like the way I speak to you.” I did and I told her that as well. She was confident in a way I’d never seen before. She would make an interesting mistress, if things ever got that far between us.
“You are healthy.” She drew the smooth edge of her talon over my breast and around my nipple. Goose bumps broke out all over my body. “You please me.”
“Can I see your other forms?” I asked boldly. Daddy had four basic forms: his full demon, his full human, and two forms that fell in between depending on his mood. I wanted to know exactly what else I was exposing myself to.
Paeno nodded again. “I will show you.” She shrank herself by a foot. Her horns decreased in size as well, but her wings maintained their massive span. Gradually, she became more and more human. Pert breasts formed, and a slight cleft appeared between her legs. As she continued to level out, she inched closer and closer. Up close, her skin was beautiful. Her scales were a full mosaic of lighter and darker greens. She let me touch her. She was cool and smooth like a snake. Eventually, a full woman, only few inches taller than myself, stood in front of me. Green eyes with normal dark pupils sat perfectly wide in a round face with Mediterranean features. Deep brown nipples tipped deep bronze breasts, and her white hair drained to black. She smiled at me and the tips of her fangs had disappeared. She pleased me as well.
“You will be mine.”
I’ve never been one to rush into decisions, but as I tried to think of what else the future meant for me, there was nothing. I’d work wherever I wanted, or not work at all thanks to Daddy’s reign. I would drift from the girls, possibly even from Camila and Ginger, considering I wouldn’t see them as much anymore. And Cleo? There was just a painful void.
Every thought of her was overshadowed by the truth. She didn’t want me anymore. She couldn’t even be bothered to pick on me. It was that indifference that burned, that indifference that showed me that she had already moved on. I couldn’t change who I was, and the truth remained that the real me wasn’t someone Cleo wanted to be with. Paeno wanted my body and my loyalty. Maybe after time, after I learned her ways and the way she ran her nest, she would give me some bit of responsibility when it came to the other humans in her care. But for now, Paeno at least wanted me for me.
“I have conditions,” I said.
“You will share them.” Her human voice was sweet and melodic.
“I want to come see my mother whenever I want,” I insiste
d.
“You will have this.”
“And I want a baby.”
Paeno raised an eyebrow. She seemed surprised, but intrigued by the idea. “You want a baby by birth. You want a baby bought.”
“Birth. I-I want to have a baby.”
“You will see your mother. You will have a baby.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. She was reading me, but I didn’t know what she was picking up. “There is more you desire.” She stepped closer. “You wish to have your control taken from you.”
I nodded. “Sometimes.”
“Such an interesting child. You will have these things.”
“Okay.” I let out a slight breath. “Then I will be yours.”
She whispered, “You will be still.”
Paeno took my left wrist in her palm and turned my forearm up. The forefinger on her other hand morphed back into a talon, and with it, she set up drawing an intricate design on my arm. The sensation warmed under my skin. It didn’t burn, but I did not enjoy the way it felt. It was uncomfortable. When she finished, the effect mimicked a white tattoo. My skin was raised in the pattern of the lines and swirls that resembled a flower overlapping a seven-pointed star. I’d seen the image before on a parchment Daddy had in his office. It was her mark.
“You come to me in four months’ time and you will have whatever you like.”
“Yes, I will,” I replied. She came forward a final step and slid her arms aggressively around my waist. Her hands caressed my body as we kissed. She tasted like mint and something close to pears. She touched my butt and my back. She touched every inch that made me self-conscious, but I let her explore. This wasn’t love. It was something that my body yearned to surrender to. It was possession, proved more as Paeno bit me.
I winced and pulled away, shocked at the pain her bite caused. When I tasted my own blood, I touched my fingers to the inside of my lip. They came away red.
I looked up at her. She’d backed across the room and returned to her full demon. A moment later, she vanished. When her lingering essence fully dissipated, I walked to where she had been standing. The edge of my vanity was singed.
Chapter Nine
Benny
I lay awake early into the next morning, thinking about the pact I had just sealed with Paeno, and thinking about the strange kiss we’d shared. I knew she would follow through on my conditions, but I was scared. Her home in China was so far away from Mama and the few people I cared about. Still, I decided eventually that I had made the right decision to move on with her. I could start over thousands of miles away from Cleo instead of an hour up the interstate. My feelings on being mated to Paeno were still a little unsettled, but I wanted to go through with it for the simple fact that my feelings for Cleo were just as unsettled.
I needed to move on. There was no debate on that fact, and with the awkward tension between me and the other girls in the house, I needed a major change after graduation. Paeno presented that opportunity for me. I thought maybe after some time we could even discuss my more specific desires in the bedroom. I knew our relationship wouldn’t be traditional, but I would be her mate and her feeder, so she would want to please me sexually too. I had no doubt in her abilities, that much was true.
As the hours went by, the physical effect she had on me began to fade, but the next day when I met her and my parents down in Daddy’s quarters for lunch, my body opened up for Paeno the moment she looked at me. This time the effect was more intense. She had toned down her monster a little and sat on Daddy’s settee with her wings folded behind her back. I sat beside her and held still as she stroked my knee while she and Daddy talked about their feeders and various demons and humans under their control. They spoke so Mama and I could understand. Paeno told Daddy she was pleased I had accepted her proposal and she promised Mama that she would make me happy.
When it was time for me to head back to school, Paeno kissed me again, in front of my parents. She skipped the love bite. After she excused us, my parents walked me out to my car. I thought Mama would burst from excitement. It was nice to see her so happy.
“Oh, angel, you like her, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I told her, though I still wasn’t entirely sure. Interested or maybe fascinated would describe my feelings better.
“I’m very proud of you, my princess. You have made the right decision,” Daddy said.
“I think she will be good for me,” I said, trying to sound more optimistic.
“She will. She will take excellent care of you.” Mama beamed as she pulled me into a hug.
I was sure she would.
*
“Does it hurt?” Ginger asked. She lightly traced her fingers over the mark on my arm.
“No,” I said. “It’s warm.” After I dropped off my stuff, I went down to their apartment to tell Ginger and Camila about my arrangement with Paeno. The mark on my arm had held its texture and its odd temperature, but overnight the color had started to change. The fleshed-toned relief had grown a little darker with a hint of dark blue.
“I don’t like this.” Camila had been huffing and puffing and pacing around their living room ever since I told them the gist of the story. Though I was sure she could smell Paeno on me, I left out the part with the naked examination. And the kiss.
“I’m going to be fine, and I’m sure you can come visit.”
“What are you going to do over there?” Ginger asked.
Paeno and I hadn’t discussed that. I figured rearing a child was enough of a career ambition for the moment, but I wasn’t ready to share that news with Ginger. “Whatever I want. Paeno has more of a fortress system under her control. It’s like a vampire / feeder commune. She doesn’t have direct contact with any humans who aren’t under her control.”
“I still don’t like it,” Camila grumbled. “I feel like Dalhem didn’t think this through.”
“He did and so did I. It’ll be fine,” I said again, but I couldn’t help but notice the doubt had spread to Ginger’s face. “What?” I asked her.
She looked at Camila briefly. “I don’t really like it either. I don’t want you to be so far away.”
“You can vanish there in seconds. We can still see each other. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know. Something feels off about this,” Ginger replied.
“It’s Paeno’s territory, Benny. Not Dalhem’s. I’m sure she won’t deny you guests whenever you like, but we can’t just come and go as we please.” Camila was right. Daddy and his brothers and sisters trusted unfamiliar vampires as much as they trusted unbound humans, but Camila made it seem like she and Ginger would want to see me every day, which they wouldn’t. I knew things would be different and I wouldn’t be around all the time, but I also wouldn’t be Camila’s feeder anymore. This doubt was her demon sense of possession speaking. Once our bond was broken, I doubted she would think of me much if it weren’t for Ginger. Not that Camila didn’t care about me, but a blood bond changes things.
“I will talk to her. You can come whenever you like, and I am sure I will learn to love fifteen-hour flights,” I said with a smile. “This is for the best.”
“The best for who, though?” I knew what Ginger was asking. She wanted to know if I was running. Of course I was, but she didn’t need to know that. As if denying her influence had somehow conjured her up, Cleo stuck her head through the door. I scrambled to pull down my sleeve, but it was too late. I knew she’d seen the mark.
“Hey. I—sorry. I’ll come back,” she said as she looked at us curiously.
“No, it’s fine. I should go.” With an abrupt jerk, I stood, but Cleo stepped inside and tried to block me from leaving.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Nothing. I’ll see you guys later.” I slid by her and out the door. She didn’t follow me, but I could feel her eyes on my back as I tried to coolly power-walk to the elevator. I wasn’t ready to tell her about Paeno yet. I hadn’t planned on telling her at all since it wasn�
��t any of her business, but I should have known better than to think Cleo would leave me alone after my sketchy exit, just friends or not.
She was waiting for me in my room.
“What is going on?” she demanded as soon as I opened my door. I knew that tone. She wasn’t trying to give me a hard time. She wasn’t messing with me. She wanted real answers and she wasn’t leaving until she got them. I relented and pushed up the sleeve of my sweater.
She took my wrist and carefully looked over Paeno’s engraving. “What is this?”
“I’ve been marked.”
Cleo’s eyes popped wide. “By who? Camila agreed to this?”
“After graduation, I’m promised to Paeno. Camila doesn’t have any say in this.”
Her right eyebrow flew up. “Who the fuck is that?”
“Dalhem’s sister.”
“What? Why!” She let go of my hand and took a step back.
“Because.” I swallowed and told Cleo the truth. “You and I are over, and I thought it would be best for me if I moved on. I leave for Beijing in June.”
“You’re moving to China!”
“Yes,” I said as calmly as I could. But my ease with the conversation didn’t seem to help Cleo. Her eyes wildly searched the floor and I was positive I was about to see a vampire hyperventilate for the first time. Just as quickly, her mouth clamped shut and she looked me straight in the eye.
“No, you can’t. You’re not going. Break it off.”
“I can’t. It’s too late. I’m promised to Paeno. I’m hers.”
“Promised? What the fuck? Did Dalhem trade you for some cattle? Is this your choice or is he forcing you?” I wasn’t surprised that she came to that conclusion.
“No one forced me to do anything. It was my choice, but you helped push things along,” I told her honestly.
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