“No!” I shrieked, causing Evander to pause, turning to smile coldly at me as he lifted his blade again. “No, no! Not him, I’ll do anything you want. Not him! Just not him!” I begged. I was not above selling my soul to save the only person in the universe who had ever shown me kindness.
“Bring him,” he stated, slowly walking back to where I had ended up sideways in the dirt, pleading for my only friend’s life. “Your boyfriend?” he snorted, staring at me as Dom was shoved to his knees in front of me. “Get her up. I want her to see his head leaving his body.”
“No, not him! He isn’t even here willingly!” I sobbed.
“No? Because he wasn’t being held against his will,” Evander hissed, watching me as Dom was shoved to his knees in front of me.
“Eli,” Dom whispered, staring at me. “It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t! You’re only here because of me. Take my head!” I demanded, turning watery eyes to Evander. “I tried to murder you. He was just assigned here with me. He isn’t part of this.”
His blade rested on Dom’s neck, and Dom smiled at me. “Eli, look at me. I love you. You’re everything good in my world. I’m okay dying. I’ll be free.”
“Shut your mouth! Ride or die, remember? No dying. If you die, I have to die. You promised we would go together.”
“Touching,” Evander snorted.
“If I die, they can never use me again. I won’t have to murder people to line their pockets with gold. You hear me, Eli? You won’t have to stay because of me. You can run, I know you can because you’re a survivor,” he whispered as he lifted his head. “Promise me you’ll be okay, little elf.”
“Don’t!” I screamed through trembling lips. “I’ll do whatever you want. You want me to be your whore, I’ll be your whore. You want someone dead, I can do that. Just don’t kill him.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s the only friend I’ve ever had. He is the only person in this sick world who didn’t look at me as if I was a tool to be used against their enemies or to fill their pockets. Because he’s the only family I have!” I stared at Dominick. “Because he’s my person. He’s my person.”
“Bitch,” Dom whispered.
“Prick.”
“I love you, too,” he countered.
“I hate you right now.”
“No, you don’t. You’ll be okay, Eli.” He smiled as the sword was lifted. “Close your eyes.”
“Never,” I argued, watching him. “If you kill him, you better kill me because I will never stop hunting you,” I warned as power erupted in the courtyard as I stared at Evander, who paused, looking around until his eyes landed on me again. “I will bring you to your fucking knees and eat your soul, Unseelie King.”
My skin glowed as his lips curled into a sinful smirk. “Grab him, and bring him with us. Seems our little Elvaan pet has more secrets than we already discovered,” he uttered, crouching down in front of me as he pushed the visor of his helmet up. “You try to run, I’ll kill him. You try to hurt my people, I’ll feed you his fucking heart while I fuck you from behind. He’s alive because I allow him to breathe. How long he continues to do so will depend on you. Get her up, give her to the women. I want her cleaned and the shit off of her face. Have her brought to me when it’s done.”
Chapter Five
My entire body ached, and the potion hadn’t finished with me by any means. I could still feel it inside of me, fighting to force me to act upon the growing needs of my body. I’d been scrubbed clean, washed until my flesh felt raw. My hair had been brushed until I was sure more was on the brush than on my scalp. I was dressed in a white skirt that flowed to my bare feet, with a matching shirt that was little more than a scrap of cloth.
They pushed me around, which, unbeknownst to them, I was used to. It wasn’t until I was forced into the library that I stiffened. Dominick turned, staring at me with black eyes, and didn’t speak. Silently, I moved to him and touched his face, finding it ice cold. My hand clasped his face as my forehead rested against his.
“Let him go,” I swallowed, turning to find Evander studying my reaction.
“Sit down and shut up. I ask the questions, you answer them honestly. For every wrong answer, he gets closer to the end of his lifespan. Start with your name, woman.”
“Elianna,” I stated, and Dominick whimpered in pain. “My name is Elianna Zerenity Cordova. My number is four thousand and two. I can’t give you another name because I was only given one.”
I turned horrified eyes to Dominick, who relaxed even though his face had never changed expressions. Slowly, my gaze turned to Evander, and I blushed as heat shot through me violently. My eyes closed as he chuckled, inhaling my scent deep into his lungs.
“Why are you blushing?” he asked coldly.
“Because my body wants yours,” I admitted, knowing that every lie would bring Dom closer to death.
“But you don’t?”
“No, I do not. You’re a mark, nothing more and nothing less.”
Dom cried out, and I closed my eyes before opening my mouth. “I don’t want you. I only want your cock.” I shrugged my shoulders, refusing to meet his stare. “I don’t know how long the potion will work or why it isn’t lessening, but I am certain that is why I am reacting to you.”
“What was in the potion?”
“Fae pheromones and magic to enhance them is what Kerri told me was in it.”
“Did you know who I was when you fucked me?” he asked pointedly, moving to where I stood, only to push me against the desk, watching as my body responded to his.
“No.”
“So you expect me to believe that you’re a good little bitch who just does what she is told?” he asked, lifting me to the desk, silently spreading my legs apart as he settled between them.
“I am owned by the agency. I do whatever I am told, without question. Questioning my betters would lead to punishment, and creatures like Kerri tend to break things like me when they deliver it,” I whispered past the trembling in my lips that his closeness caused.
“You’re much prettier without that shit on your face hiding your Elvaan features. Elvaans are all but extinct in this world, and yet here you are. I’ve met three in my lifetime, and yet you’re hiding in plain sight, owned by the agency which intrigues me. How is that they weren’t aware of what you are, Elianna?”
“I’m a halfling, Evander,” I whispered and then moaned as his fingers pinched the insides of my thighs, forcing them to open wider for him as he watched me.
“I’m the fucking King of the Unseelie, and murderous little whores address me as such no matter how tempting their pussies are.”
“I wasn’t a whore until you,” I replied huskily.
“That much is true, luckily for you. You’re not a halfling. You have canines I’m guessing they couldn’t file down. Your ears are pointed, though. They’re definitely real, unlike most that are cut to appear pointed. Cute, but real,” he said, touching the shell of my ear, which caused my eyes to close as my mouth opened. My Elvaan ears were highly sensitive, and my downfall if the agency ever discovered them.
Warmth spread through me, and a blush burned my cheeks as I forced my eyes open, finding him observing me.
“What did you do for the agency? Murder innocent people? Seduce men into giving you their life savings with the promise of tasting your delicious, innocent pussy? How many men have you slaughtered for coin?”
“Hundreds,” I admitted.
“Then why not buy your freedom, woman?”
“It isn’t allowed anymore. They ended that option twenty years ago. We’re not given anything from the jobs we do. We do them so that we are not hunted down and slaughtered like animals. We are nothing to them. We are simply owned.”
“Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?” he laughed soundlessly.
“No, no one ever does. We’re beneath your notice. As I said, we’re nothing. When we die, no one cares that we’re gone. If I don’t return from the m
ission, no one will look for me. No one would care that I failed, other than the coin they’d lose.”
“So if I keep you as a pet, no one will come looking for you?” he countered.
“Why would they? You’ve alleviated them from the need of feeding me, and another halfling can use the shelf I slept on in my place.”
“Shelf?”
“Unless you are one of the whores, you are given a shelf in a room with the others. Only whores are given chambers so that those who seek to pay the cost of their flesh may come in and use them. Occasionally the men who run the agency indulge as well, which is why they have rooms. Most men don’t want an audience when finding release with creatures beneath them.”
“But you weren’t touched until me, why?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered thickly. “I was their top-earning assassin, but times are changing. They’re changing what they do, and with fewer contracts coming in during the brewing war of the Otherworld, I’m guessing I would have become one no matter what. My virtue was sold to Kerri, who also planned to buy me.”
“Kerri wanted you, a female?”
“She enjoys hurting things. She has a collection in her dungeon she liked to show me. Women she’s…in her words, made into pretty dolls. However, they’re not whole anymore. They’re mindless monsters who she tortured and destroyed with magic. She told me to murder you before you’d finished taking me. She had, after all, paid for my virginity.”
“But you fucked me,” he snorted.
“You were the lesser evil, believe it or not.” My eyes lifted to his, finding him studying me. He moved his hand, sliding his fingertips up my open thighs as I watched them vanishing beneath the skirt I wore. My eyes slipped to Dominick, and Evander laughed coldly.
“He sees nothing, hears nothing unless I allow it. You said you’d be whatever I wanted you to be in order to protect your lover.”
“He’s not my lover, and you know that. I was untouched by man until you. I’d never kissed another man, not like you kissed me. In passing, I’d brush my lips against a mark’s, promising him pleasure and delivering him hell. Seduction isn’t about fucking. It’s about leading a man to believe he is all man. He needs to feel as if the weak, delicate little flower needs him,” I whispered huskily as his fingers slipped through the wetness between my thighs. “That her world could revolve around him and that without him, she is lost.” I cried out as his fingers pushed into my body, creating a storm of emotion that caused my body to arch and tremble violently. “It’s an illusion, and those with enough skill can accomplish it without ever having to kiss the mark.”
“You didn’t seduce me,” he announced in a cocky tone, spreading his fingers as my mouth parted past the burning of being stretched by them. “I seduced you, Elianna.”
“I was heavily drugged, but then you knew that. You knew their entire plan before it even began, didn’t you? Yet you still took me knowing I planned to kill you, why?”
“Because you were pure, and I wanted to be certain you were my enemy before I declared war on you and your body.”
“And now?” I whispered.
“Now, I know that you are my enemy, and I own your body.” He watched me, pushing deeper into my body as it tightened with need. “I own your mind, and your pleasure is mine to give and take,” he whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. “I also scented the truth beneath this halfling shield you wear, and that piqued my interest because, until tonight, I’m certain you’ve never even known you’re more Elvaan than halfling, but you are. The fact that you didn’t know makes you weak, but I can work with that.”
My head rolled back as his mouth brushed alongside the pulse in my throat, beating wildly against his lips. His fingers moved faster, forcing me to the point where my body teetered on the edge of a cliff, only to stop before I reached climax. His hand moved, wrapping around my waist as he lifted me up, carrying me deeper into the library until he sat on a couch with me straddling his lap.
“Fuck me, Elianna. Show me why I should keep you alive.”
“I didn’t say you should keep me alive, Evander,” I whispered, grinding against him as heat flooded my apex, coating my sex with need. “I didn’t beg for my life. Do with me as you want, but that boy? He is everything good in this world. For him, I will be whatever you want. Give me your cock, and I’ll ride it until you fill me with your release. Give me the names of your enemies, and I will slaughter them for you. Hurt my friend, and I will bring hell to this world until you are the king of nothing and on your knees before me,” I said, still grinding against him as he watched me.
“You think you can bring me to my knees? Kings and Queens alike have challenged me, and I have their heads in my trophy case. One woman doesn’t scare me, Elianna. You do, however, make the most delicious noises for me. I didn’t leave that boy alive because I want to fuck you, he’s alive because I plan to train you,” he admitted coldly. “Oh, don’t look so disappointed. I plan to fuck you, too, often even. Fae politics keep me from slaughtering men in my court who need to be put down like rabid animals. Your innocence and the scent of this delicious pussy is how I plan to win a war without ever lifting my sword. Well, other than when you’re riding it.”
“You want me to murder your enemies by seducing them?”
“I want you to do whatever you have to do in order to bring them down. Your friend’s life depends on it,” he countered carefully. “I’ll train you, and at night you’ll be on your knees waiting to please me. You said you’d do whatever I wanted. I want you to murder my enemies that I cannot kill because they’re in my own court, and I want to fuck your tight cunt until I rid myself of the need to do so. You’ll either agree, or I will end his life now. That choice is yours. He’s waiting for you to decide.”
“Done,” I said without hesitation. “I am used to being owned, Evander. You’re just another creature who thinks me a lesser being who can be owned. Once again, you’re the lesser of two evils.”
“I wouldn’t be so quick to say such things, Elianna. And you call me your king or your majesty,” he growled, pushing into my body as a scream tore from my throat. “Now, fucking ride me because I enjoy listening to your screams while you’re stretched around my cock, milking it with your tight body.”
I rolled my hips, leaning close to his lips before whispering again. “When do we start, Evander?”
I was lifted and pushed face-first into the couch. His large hands spread my legs apart before he slammed into my body, forcing a scream of pain to roar from my lungs as he used inhuman speed to batter into my body. Power erupted, and the whisper of wings displaced air as my hair was yanked back, and his dark laughter echoed inside my head without him making a sound.
“When I say we do,” he roared as I exploded around him. “I didn’t say you could come, little plaything.”
“I didn’t ask permission,” I laughed, enjoying the feel of his fingers as they bit into my flesh. “Harder,” I demanded, bucking against him, feeling him pause as my words registered, withdrawing to flip me onto my back as he stared down at me.
“Someone has a dark side,” he smiled, pushing my legs up until they touched my shoulders as he pushed in, causing my eyes to roll to the back of my head as absolute pleasure ripped through me.
“So play with it, Darkest King,” I encouraged as I lifted up, rolling my hips as he watched me.
“I’m almost pleased you tried to kill me,” he growled, watching my body as it moved against his in wild abandonment, clenching against him as I slowly brought him to the edge, watching his face as it tightened with pleasure. “No, I am. You’re so fucked, woman. You have no idea what I have planned for you, but you will, soon enough.”
I watched as his eyes glowed, and he smiled with large canines exposed that promised pain. I didn’t back away, didn’t fear what he was. I was free of those who wanted to sell Dom and me to whoever would bury our bodies the deepest.
This creature, I’d escape him too. I could do whatever it took
to keep us alive, even at the cost of my soul, which I was sure he’d steal. Amethyst eyes ignited, and I felt him pushing through my mind, learning me, which I allowed.
I had no secrets, no dark fantasies that he could pluck from my mind. I had been abandoned, left to the monstrous humans that ran the agency. I would repay them for hurting us, for hurting the halflings they controlled. After I was finished with them, I’d make the fae pay for leaving us to them. He was a means to an end, and no matter the cost to reach that end, I’d pay it.
“While you’re deciding how you’ll wage war against me, Elianna, you should know exactly who you’re planning to wage it against. I am the shadows, the night, and I live within every Unseelie in this kingdom. There is nowhere you can hide from me. There’s nowhere that you can hide your friend that I cannot reach. I am the Darkest Knight, the Dark King, and the monster that will always find you no matter how far you run, or how deep you dig yourself into a hole to hide from me. You are mine now, and no one will argue it. You will never escape me.”
“Never say never,” I growled, still grinding against him as he smirked coldly.
“You run from me, and you won’t like what happens, little girl.”
“You’d have to catch me first.”
“I always catch my prey. And when I catch them, I devour them.”
I watched his arms as his muscles strained, and the smile that covered his lips promised pain. It didn’t matter how long I had to wait; it didn’t matter how much he hurt me, as long as I escaped him eventually. Because I always had a plan in play and my escape route planned before ever entering the enemy’s gates—and everyone was my enemy.
“You won’t run, not without your friend,” he announced, leaning down to clamp his mouth around my nipple before letting it go with a loud popping sound. “He’s been moved while I’ve been fucking you. Play games with me, woman, and I’ll show you why the king outranks the queen in our world.”
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