Reign of Nightmares (Blood Throne Book 1)

by Quinn Arthurs

  “Draven, Crowe?” I called over my shoulder, even as I arched under Sebastian’s bloody, commanding hands.

  “You’re good.” It would have been too much of a strain for the pair to constantly keep their lie detection spells going throughout any torture we had planned. Instead, we had let Sebastian play, allowing the fear and pain to build before we began.

  “Alright, Clyde,” I cooed at the bleeding, sobbing shell of a man who still dangled from the ceiling. “Now that my pet has had his fun, it’s time for a few answers.”

  “Just make it stop,” Clyde gasped out, tears mixing with the blood on his face. The crimson liquid dripped in streaks down his cheeks and over his chin. Unlike what they had done to Sebastian, my pet hadn’t yet messed with the man’s thighs or attempted to castrate him. Although the damage he inflicted was heavy and incredibly painful, it wouldn’t be lethal. We needed him alive and conscious, not rapidly bleeding out.

  “How many pets have you and your friends killed?” I demanded, keeping my eyes on the man even as Sebastian began to trace patterns across my stomach with the tips of his fingers.

  “Fif-fifteen,” Clyde whimpered. His eyes were swollen from his tears, but I could clearly see the exhaustion in them. He’d already given up, and my pet hadn’t even inflicted all the wounds he’d received himself. Pathetic.

  “Do you know if others were killed before that?” I questioned, resisting the urge to writhe as Sebastian traced the edge of his blade across the curve of my breast.

  “Yes. It’s been going on for a long time. Much longer than I’ve been here.” Clyde’s voice was nasally, the tears clogging his throat as he continued to sob between words.

  “Did the humans make this decision, or is there someone else at play?”

  “Depended on the pet.” It was Della who answered this time, and Sebastian shifted his hold on me so I could see her slumped over on the chair. She had held up better than Clyde. Unlike him, she never begged for her life, never tried to make a deal. She had accepted her fate and the pain, though it hadn't stopped her screams and sobs as her body was torn apart. “Some we chose. Some the vampires chose. Some the witches chose.” Her words slurred slightly due to the blood that was filling her mouth, and she spit loudly, attempting to clear the buildup away.

  “Witches?” Crowe snapped, striding forward. “Witches ordered you to kill pets?”

  “I’ll tell you,” Clyde begged, turning his gaze to Crowe and Draven, who now stared at Della. “I-I know more than she does. Just make them stop hurting me and I’ll do it,” he sobbed, pleading with the twins as though Sebastian and I weren’t even there. As though they could control us. I hissed at the man and he flinched away, but his eyes remained fixed on what he saw as his salvation. The twins didn’t even glance at him, however, their eyes fastened solely on Della.

  “If there was a witch’s pet, or if the witch wanted something from the vampire.” Della coughed, splattering more blood against her lap. “Some just thought it was funny, they liked seeing humans kill each other.” Rage had my fingers turning to talons, my fangs extending over my lip. This had been going on long enough to become a game, and yet I’d never once heard of it.

  “Names,” Crowe demanded, his voice an icy hiss as lightning crackled across his skin. “Witches or covens.”

  “It’s been a long time,” Della croaked. “I can’t remember them all. Basil. Arcadia. Zephyr. Kai. I never got coven names.”

  “Hemlock,” Clyde gasped out. “Hemlock Coven liked using us.”

  “And the vampires?” Sebastian’s hands on my body were the only things holding me back from lunging forward and ripping the answers out of them.

  “Geraldine and Victor.” Della’s voice cracked on the names. “They always gave us rewards. Money. Items. They liked having the pieces when we were done. Victor would convince other vampires to take us on after that if he thought we did well. He’d promised Winifred he’d take her himself this time.”

  “Did the king or queen ever involve themselves in this?” I was shaking now, barely able to contain myself. I needed to tear, to shred, to drink until this anger inside me was burned out.

  “If so, it wasn’t directly. I don’t know if they knew, but we always hid it just in case they didn’t,” Della admitted.

  Snarling, I lashed out, kicking the dead body on the floor, venting my rage before I gave in and killed them. We needed everything they had, not just the basics. “Crowe, can you rip anything else from their heads? Names? Faces?” He’d been able to take Sebastian’s memory and show it to me, and if he could do the same to her… My thoughts trailed off when he shook his head.

  “It’s been happening for a long time. The memories will have faded, and there will be too much space between them. Just like we had to live Sebastian’s memory, we’d have to live all the time since she had been inducted into this. We’d lose a year of our life watching that much of her mind. I can’t just search and find something that vague over that long of a period,” he explained, his eyes glowing as red as the blood that decorated Della’s lips.

  “They won’t stop,” Della whispered, her dark eyes meeting mine. There was pain and anger, but also certainty swirling in those depths. “There’s more, there are always more. I don’t know anything else, no other names, but I know they’ll keep coming. It’s a game, a way to gain power. You know as well as I do that’s what’s important. Why would they ever stop it?”

  I didn’t need Draven and Crowe’s power to know she was telling the truth. Power was everything to witches and vampires. It was what we thrived on, what we fought for, what we plotted and manipulated to gain. This wasn’t a life for someone who was weak or fragile. This life was, and would always be, one of pain, of suffering, of murder. But there were laws in place—laws I had set, that my family had established. I wouldn’t see that flouted, not in my castle.

  “I have more,” Clyde sputtered. “Everett, Margarite, Luther, Evadne, Bayard—”

  Draven’s fist cut him off, snapping the man’s head around as he cried out. “Liar,” he hissed at him, twirling the knife he favored before slamming it into Clyde's side, carving the word into his skin. “None of those names were true.”

  “Please,” he shrieked, the sound echoing off the stone. “Please! I just want to be one of you. I’ll say anything you want, just please stop. Make me one of you!”

  “Do you have any other names? Witches, vampires, coven titles?” Crowe ignored the way his brother was carving Clyde’s skin as he stared into the man’s eyes.

  “Yes!” Clyde screamed, his head going back as he bucked, attempting to evade Draven’s slowly scrawling blade as he separated Clyde’s skin from his abdomen.

  “Lie,” Crowe hissed, turning his attention back to us. “He knows nothing that he or Della haven’t already shared. She’s done as well.” He stepped away, heading back toward his spot on the wall.

  “They’re yours, pet,” I murmured, arching underneath Sebastian’s hands as we watched Draven’s knife slide through the skin on Clyde’s side like butter.

  Sebastian chuckled, his tongue flicking out to trace my throat. “But it’s so much fun to watch Draven skin him.” His words were loud enough for both Draven and Clyde to hear. “How long do you think he’ll live if Draven keeps going?”

  “Ash, Ash, Ash,” Draven murmured, shaking his head as he slipped his blade up Clyde’s chest. “I’m well practiced in skinning someone and making sure they survive to the end.” A gurgle left Clyde’s throat as Draven peeled a chunk away, letting the flesh hang in large strips as blood dripped down his arms and onto the floor. “Usually I haven’t taken chunks out of them first though. It’s just like peeling an apple, you see. You want to do it all in one long, continuous strip.”

  Sebastian laughed, pressing into my back, and I ground against the hard length of him. “I’ll have to give that a try sometime.”

  “It takes practice,” Draven commented, his blade slicing and slashing in quick, sure movements, C
lyde’s screams echoing back to us without end. I was sure Clyde’s throat had torn by now, if the blood spilling from his lips was anything to go by.

  “What will you have me do, mistress?” He breathed the words into my ear, and a shiver of arousal worked itself over my skin. There was no taunt in the title, just a promise of pain and pleasure.

  “Do you want one of them for yourself? Would you want Draven to skin them all?” He sucked hard at my neck, his teeth digging in, making me groan. “You haven’t seen Crowe work yet, and something tells me that’s a thing of beauty.” This twisted demon with the face of an angel was enough to make me melt, and I writhed in his arms.

  “I’m saving my work for the witches.” Crowe’s icy tone rang through the room, audible through the breaks in Clyde’s screams. “One of you can have these things.” I chuckled at that, though the sound ended on a gasp when Sebastian cupped my breasts, his fingers tracing over my peaked nipples.

  “They’re yours, pet.” I arched into his touch. “I promised them to you.” I didn’t care which of us ended them, they had so little fight left in them anyhow. I just didn’t want Sebastian to stop. I didn’t want his demon to retreat, leashed back inside him.

  “Draven, are you having fun?” Sebastian asked calmly. “He’s yours to play with or kill, I’m done with him.” Draven didn’t hesitate, his blade continuing to skin the man in question as he hummed softly to himself in acknowledgement of Sebastian’s words. Sebastian picked up his knife, wrapped my hand around the handle with his, and pushed me toward Della. “Together,” he whispered into my ear before lashing out with our joined arms, slicing straight across her throat. Blood sprayed us in a crimson arc, soaking into my skin and pressing my dress against my body with its heat and weight. I groaned my approval as it seeped into my skin. My pet spun me to face him, his mouth claiming mine in a deep kiss, the knife falling to the floor with a resounding clang as he devoured me. I ground against him, pressing my body flush to his as I wrapped my arms around his neck. It wasn’t until he pulled away when I realized Clyde’s screams had stopped as well.

  “I don’t care who kills the spare,” he murmured against my lips, and a sharp cry echoed before the room fell silent again. I pulled back slightly, looking from Sebastian to Draven and then to the bodies that littered the room. The three of us were soaked in blood, our clothes absolutely ruined.

  “I thought you were going to let her eat one.” Draven wiped his knife on one of the corpses, cleaning his favored blade before returning it to the sheath at his waist.

  “She wasn’t hungry,” Sebastian murmured, his blue eyes never leaving mine. That gave me pause, and I tilted my head, considering it. I’d been so enraptured while watching him work, I truly hadn’t been hungry, though I was starting to feel it now, and I sighed at the loss of potential meals.

  “I’ll have to attend family dinner.” I groaned at the thought. Sebastian’s hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air supply as he yanked me forward.

  “No,” he demanded, his eyes flashing dangerously. “You’ll feed from me.”

  “As much as I want to watch this all play out,” Crowe drawled, interrupting us and causing Sebastian’s hold to loosen enough for me to draw in a sharp breath. “Draven and I will need to discuss what to do about these witches and the Hemlock Coven. That means we need to return you to your rooms for the remainder of any play you’re planning.”

  Sebastian tossed the blade he had been using back onto the table and nodded at the twins. “Thank you again. For your help then and now.” He held out a hand to me as Crowe opened the portal again, ushering us all into it. As I stepped through, two remaining questions burned inside my mind—which Sebastian would be on the other side to greet me, and would he still be willing to enter my bed?

  Chapter Twenty

  Elsie

  Draven and Crowe slipped from the room as soon as the portal had closed behind them, and I turned to face Sebastian. Blood coated him from head to toe, matting his golden brown hair to his head and streaking across his bare chest. Even his pants and feet were soaked in the thick, sticky substance. But it was his eyes that drew me in, eyes that still flamed with the promise of violence and pain. I reached out to run my hands down his chest, tracing designs in the wet blood.

  “I told you once before that I wouldn’t take you to my bed.” I scraped my nails down his abdomen, my fingers sliding over the defined lines of his stomach. “I also told you I will not take anyone to my bed against their will.”

  He chuckled, wrapping my hair around his hand. “Mistress, are you asking me to fuck you?” I shivered at the dirty words on his lips, though I didn’t flinch away.

  “I’m asking if you want me to fuck you.” I had barely gotten the words out before he yanked me against his chest, crushing my hands between us.

  “We’ll see which of us is the one getting fucked,” he murmured, pulling hard on my hair and making me gasp at the pleasure and pain he caused. “Shower first. I want to taste only you the first time I have you, not their dirty blood.” He reached up, shredding my dress as though it was made of tissue paper, and I moaned as the thin, stained cloth fell to the floor. He tugged me after him, making me follow him into the bathroom as he turned the shower on, waiting for the water to warm as he took all of me in. “I never thought a monster could be as beautiful as you are,” he murmured, his hand encircling my throat and squeezing gently.

  “That’s funny coming from the angel with a demon inside,” I gasped out.

  He smirked at me, reaching behind him to test the water. “Is that what you see when you look at me?” I made a sound of agreement, unable to form the words as he kept his grip on my throat. “Fair analogy. It suits you as well, you know.” He tugged his pants away from his body, stepping out of the blood soaked fabric. “All this white gold hair. Those blue eyes.” His finger stroked over my lip, pulling it down to expose the fangs hidden inside. “Then there are these.” His hand trailed between my breasts before grasping my hip as he led me under the hot stream of water. I tilted my head back, enjoying the sensation of the water playing through my curls. “That. Right there.” His words were a growl, and I opened my eyes to watch him. “That expression of pleasure on your face. I have to know if that’s what you look like when you come.”

  “Then touch me,” I ordered, and a smirk tugged at his lips.

  “Greedy. So greedy.” He angled his head to let the water cascade through his hair, streaks of red running down his chest and swirling around the drain as the blood was slowly washed away. He reached for the soap, pouring some into his palm before rubbing his hands together, working up the bubbles until they danced thickly around his fingers. He stroked his hands down my neck and over my collarbone, watching the bubbles slide over my skin as he took his time touching me. I moaned at the intensity in his gaze and the sensation of his rough palms over my tender skin. “Did you like seeing the monster I keep inside?” he inquired, his fingers pinching and squeezing the hardened buds of my nipples.

  “Yes,” I hissed.

  “Even knowing I kill your kind? That I hunt and assassinate those who have wronged me?” His words were a gibe—in his eyes, I could see he knew the truth. I didn’t care about any of that. I craved that darkness, craved the part of him that fed on pain and blood as much as I did.

  “Yes.” The response was a breathy moan as he slid his hand down to cup me, forcing me to arch against him.

  “When you fed from me, I nearly lost control of this darkness inside me.” His voice was husky as he traced his fingers around my inner thighs, teasing me with what I needed but refusing to give it to me. “I wouldn’t give in, wouldn’t let my body think for me even as I came in here to wash my cum from my body. I wondered then if you felt any of the pleasure I had, if you craved me the way I craved you. It didn’t matter that I didn’t want to want you.”

  His hands disappeared from my body, and I whimpered at the loss as he filled his palms with more soap and began to work it ov
er his frame. “I’m a fool for wanting you. For craving you.” His eyes flared as he stared into mine, the truth of his words ringing between us. “I kill vampires, I don’t fuck them. I’ve never once been tempted, never once looked at a vampire as more than a creature. Then I saw you, and I knew even then I wanted you. Then you bound me to you, made me your pet. I should hate you more than I’ve ever hated one of your kind before.” His declaration was a dark whisper, but I could hear every word as loud as if he’d shouted. “I wanted to feel your blood on my hands, Elsie. I wanted to see your life leave your eyes as you knew I’d beaten you, that I was the stronger predator.” A shudder ripped through my body, though it had nothing to do with fear. I’d sensed that threat in him from the beginning, and hearing it out loud had me arching into him, desperate for his touch. “You call to my demons. You test the humanity in me. You play with the logic I hold dear.” As the last of the soap rinsed from his body, he reached out and grabbed the back of my neck, yanking me hard against him. “I can’t not take you. I need you, need to feast on you and fuck you until this madness burns itself out of me.”

  “Then do it, pet,” I gasped, rubbing my sensitive breasts against his hard chest.

  He snarled, digging his hand in hard enough to bruise. “I’m not like the other humans,” he warned. “This won’t be soft or sweet. I won’t bow to you. I’ll fuck you hard, exactly how I want to. I’ll know what you taste like, what you sound like when you scream for me.”

  “Pretty promises,” I taunted, flashing my fangs. “Let’s see if you can back them up.” He slammed his hand down on the tap, shutting off the water as he dragged me into the bedroom, throwing me face first onto the bed. He was on me in a moment, his weight pressing me into the mattress as his teeth sank deep into the nape of my neck. I groaned at the pain, bucking underneath him as he clasped my wrists tightly in his hand and kicked my legs wide before releasing my wrists and skimming his fingers down my body. His hand slipped between my thighs as his tongue ran down my spine, and he thrust two fingers deep inside me.