by Kathryn Moon
I straightened my spine, squared my shoulders, and lifted my chin, meeting Booker's steady stare. "All right. Thank you, Booker."
Booker studied the water briefly, and then me again, before nodding and finally releasing me, the cool pale tone of his bald head gleaming blue as he retreated into the dark corridor.
I looked back to the water, searching through the glittering, lapping surface for a man. Booker had said he was in the water, but what I'd pictured was some bare-chested fellow, swimming and waiting for me. What did a water demon look like? If I had one critique for Magdalena, it was that a little more preparation wouldn't hurt those of us working for her. It didn't all have to be mystery and suspense, surely?
I took a breath and tiptoed closer to where the stone floor sunk down to the edge of the water, long steps lowering into blue shadow. I wasn't a swimmer by any means, but surely no one was expecting me to meet this water demon down at the bottom?
My toes curled, surprised to find the pool fairly comfortable in temperature. The hem of my dress soaked up the water and then floated aimlessly out around my ankles as I wadded in. I was a little cold, my nipples tight in my thin dress, and there was something about the oppressive quiet that reminded me of that sensation of being watched from the night before.
I wasn't alone. I was being watched this time. I just didn't know from what direction.
"Hello?"
Water licked around my calves, a gentle urge to step in a little deeper. My eyes flicked back and forth, into one shadowy cavern and then another, waiting for any sign of my client. Nerves made my skin prickle and my stomach swoop. My breaths came shorter. But with all of that, I was also aware of the excitement teasing at me. I didn't mind being a little scared.
Ezra passed through my thoughts. Our teasing words of him sneaking up on me and fucking me. I didn't think one of Magdalena's gentlemen would do that, not according to her rules, but I didn't mind imagining it.
"I'm Esther," I called out, feeling a little silly talking to myself.
I stepped down another step, water up to my knees, and resisted the urge to fidget, my chest heaving with nervous breaths.
"Come deeper."
I gasped and froze, eyes latching onto the figure directly ahead of me. He was beautiful and strange, skin a vibrant blue as if he were only reflecting and amplifying the luminescence of the stone overhead on the water. His shoulders, broad and well-defined, barely rose from the water, and everything beneath was shadow, but it looked as though he was standing and not just floating or swimming.
I stepped down once more, smiling shyly at him, tipping my head and studying his features. They were young, handsome, but also a little too far apart to really appear human.
"What's your name?" I asked.
He mimicked my smile, turning his head to the side, one eye still fixed to me. "Are you afraid of the water?"
"A little," I admitted.
"Don't be," he answered, eyes flicking down briefly as I stepped down again, water around my waist, toes almost slipping on the step. "It only wants to hold you."
The water shifted, pushing against me, squeezing around my legs, sliding and caressing suddenly. I let out a little cry, rising to my toes as the water bubbled and stroked between my legs. My eyes fluttered briefly at the feeling, so unlike anything I'd ever enjoyed before. The water was warming, pushing and pressing and licking at all of me it could reach.
This is very forward, I thought, but it made me smile. Auguste had been a gentleman. Amon had been a seducer. This was direct, and I was a direct sort of girl.
I relaxed, my knees bending, and I moaned as water pressed and sucked and nudged at my sex.
"Come deeper," the demon's voice urged.
Maybe I didn't need to know his name. This was one time only, according to Magdalena. And when I'd arrived at Rooksgrave, I'd wanted to try as many different kinds of men as I could.
I stepped forward, legs trembling, and the water tugged me along, floating me down one step, and then another, until I was up to my shoulders, water cupping and stroking my breasts and my arms, sucking on my fingers and kissing my palm. I wasn't being fucked, but I'd never been touched in so many places all at once, surrounded with the intent of pleasure before.
"Oh god," I breathed out, eyes opening again as I was stroked at the tender tight entrance of my ass.
Across the water, the demon looked every bit out of reach as he had before, and I frowned at the distance.
"Come closer, join me," I said, reaching a hand up out of the water, except I couldn't lift my fingers free, and I let out happy whimpers as the water suckled roughly, dragging my arm back down, massaging and licking every inch.
"You're still afraid?" the demon asked.
"I can't s-swim," I hiccuped, bobbing in the water, trying to find friction against the lapping between my legs, wanting to be penetrated and stretched by the same force that teased me.
The demon only chuckled as I pouted, sinking down until only his wide-set eyes were staring back at me. But I heard him perfectly as he said, "The water will hold you."
My gasp echoed in the cavern as the water lifted me off my feet, scratching over my breast, nipping the inside of my thighs as it carted me to the center of the pool, my own feet lost in the dark shadow of the water as I kicked in surprise. The water tightened around me, and I stiffened as it pulled me down, just enough to lick at my lips in a determined kiss.
Still, I wasn't any closer to the water demon. He had retreated into one of the corridors of the grotto, eyes shining silver, features losing their charm and growing entirely alien in the dark.
The thread of panic that had never really evaporated, only loosened, squeezed tight again. "Wait!" I gasped, straining to rise above the top of the water, feeling instead a strange press of weight pushing me down until my voice sputtered. Water filled my mouth like a tongue, pulled hard at my breasts, scooped and stroked against my sex. I moaned and choked, my body starting to twist and rock into the touches again.
"Come deeper. He wants to meet you," a voice, similar to the demon's, throbbed in the air, made the water vibrate against me.
I pressed my lips shut, but what I'd already swallowed slid down my throat, alive and tangible, burning in my chest.
My eyes widened, fixed to the shadow in the grotto's cavern, to the pale eyes glinting back at me.
Please, I thought, realizing this wasn't seduction. Not at all, no matter how good it felt.
"Booker!" I cried, but the water was up to my nostrils and the word was garbled. Power thrust between my lips, and I fought to shut them again, my mouth fucked by the demon's magic.
Something prodded at my sex, and I tried to twist away, the movements sluggish, trapped in the hold, strangled by water currents.
And then there was a hard yank on my ankle, and I was dragged down, the light of the stones overhead fading.
Water lapped and pushed, tugging me to where I'd last seen the eyes of the demon. Was this Magdalena's way of getting rid of me? Or was this creature, this so-called gentleman, more than a client?
My lungs burned, the water I'd swallowed sloshing and smothering me. And all the water I was surrounded by pinched and prodded, the touch rougher and ruder than a caress now. My ass was poked and stroked, my toes sucked, my thighs bitten. I thrashed and struggled, but it was more like being in thick honey than water. I only drifted where I was pulled.
The water trembled, sudden and abrupt, and the grip on my ankle slipped for a moment, allowing me to kick and squirm. It didn't matter, I still sank.
White and dark stripes were spreading out around my vision, my head pounding, and when I blinked and looked up, there was no sign of light. I was too deep in the water. Or too far into the caverns.
"I'll take you to him," the open and echoey voice promised as my cheeks puffed, and I fought the urge to cry out, to beg for air, to let more of the water into me, even as it still twisted like snakes in my chest.
"He'll make good use of you. I'
ll take you deeper. Take you to him."
Maybe it would be better to drown first, I thought weakly, although drowning seemed inevitable either way.
Something snapped around my arm, pulling.
The tugging continued, now on my wrist too, rough and hot, the two grips, tearing me in opposite directions.
Something tight, strong, circled my waist, and I screamed behind my lips as it won the battle, my ankle burning and snapping with the sudden change in movement.
Bubbles rushed past me. We were hurrying now, the water heavy but fluid. A body brushed against my side, shot me forward, and continued to push, the grip on my ribs fierce.
I nearly let out a startled cry as I finally realized. A rescue.
Light was a tiny pinpoint above, rippling through the seal of the pool, and my vision was all but black for that tiny little glitter of hope.
And then we broke the surface. Cool air kissed my cheeks. My hair slapped against my skin, and there was a great gasping from behind me.
I still couldn't breathe.
"Come on, puisín, just a touch further."
The ropes of water were still in my chest, and though my mouth had fallen open and my head was drooping forward, nothing came free.
"Esther!"
A solid, determined grip squeezed around my arms, my body a dead weight as I was hauled out of the water.
"She can't breathe."
"Too much water."
"What do we—"
Such a burning horrible squirming pain. Numbness also. How could it be both?
Briefly, there was nothing, nothing but my own terror. No sound, no air, no touch, just a deep case of black, as thick and impenetrable as it had been while I'd been dragged down. Death, I assumed calmly.
Then I rattled. Pain walloped, vivid and loud against my back.
And everything came back up my throat, spilling black and glossy over the stones, my eyes aching in my skull, wide with alarm. My nails clawed at the stone, and the sudden smack from somewhere deep in my belly and rising up to my lungs, blessedly out, returned. I heaved again, before being roughly torn away from the floor.
And as if I'd forgotten how, I found myself taking a breath with a bone-deep shock. Had I ever been so aware of air in my lungs before?
I let out a shriek, thrashing against the touch on my cheeks, unseen but warm.
"Shhh, Esther, shhh."
"Farther back, I think, Mr. MacKenna," a soft voice urged. "She's about to—"
Now, suddenly remembering how to breathe, I hauled in another deep breath until I could pull no longer. And then I was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Group Negotiations
My eyes burned, my ankle throbbed, and my skin felt so sensitive, it was as if I'd been gently boiled, but I woke with a start and with a certainty.
"Ezra!" I cried.
Warmth followed my back as I sat up straighter, the support of solid muscle, and a breath cascaded over my shoulder. "Here, sweet girl," he rasped.
The room was a little blurred and foggy, but we weren't alone. There was another figure to my right by the door, and a third to the left, but looking made me dizzy so I shut my eyes.
Carefully, fingertips rested against my shoulder, their touch relaxing and sliding down as I sighed and fell back into Ezra's chest. He was here. Had he been the whole time or…
"You're not supposed to be here," I said, and then grimaced at myself. Ezra only chuckled.
Another hand settled on my left knee, thumb brushing once. "He is now, mon coeur."
I forced my eyes open, reaching out, moaning a little as Auguste's hand lifted from my knee to take my hand in a tight, but comforting grip. Pale, perfect eyes black and expression tight, my gentleman vampire. He scooted closer, leaning in to press his forehead against mine.
"I am taking care of Mr. MacKenna's membership," Auguste murmured.
Ezra rested his bristly chin against my other shoulder, and I took a slow breath in and out, relieved to find their closeness easy rather than overwhelming.
"Not that Mags would dare throw you out now," Auguste added to the other man.
"Not that it would've worked if she had tried," Ezra muttered. "Though I barely made it back in time."
"What was in the water?" I asked, my voice dropping as I shuddered. I didn't want to believe that Magdalena had known what she was sending me down to meet.
"Water wraith. Skilled at illusions."
It took me a moment to place the voice, and when I searched the room, I finally found the hulking shadow through the doorway to my dining area. Mr. Tanner.
"Magdalena is dealing with the situation now," Auguste bit out. "Jonathon and I were on our way here to take you to the city tomorrow evening, and he's tended to you."
I was squinting at Mr. Tanner's shadow when he rumbled again. "Your eyes will heal soon. Better not to strain."
"Then you should come closer so I can see you," I said, but he grunted and remained in the darker room.
Which left the figure by the door. Black suit and pale skin. Booker.
I patted the bed and let my eyes fall shut again as I hear Booker's steps thunk closer, the bed creaking under his weight.
"Can't swim," Booker said, the words grating in his throat.
There was a giggle, bright and a little dizzy, and it took me a moment to realize it must've been mine, of course. Booker couldn't swim. He was made of marble for goodness' sake, he would sink. I caught my breath before hysteria took over, wiggling back against Ezra's warmth to sit up straight.
"Tell me what happened."
Ezra's arms circled around my waist, thick bands of comforting muscle, invisible but reassuringly present and familiar.
"I kept my word to Madame Mortimer and stayed outside the bounds of the ward. But I kept close, and…wards are a funny feeling. An urge to turn the other direction a bit. So I knew when they kept cracking in different places. I was coming just to tell her myself when I saw you and Booker heading downstairs and I…"
My lips curled slightly and I tipped my head, rubbing my cheek against Ezra’s. "Couldn't help yourself from following?"
He hummed his agreement. "Kept back on the stairs until I heard Booker bellowing for you. He was up to his eyeballs in the water when I got there, but he listened when I told him to go get Mortimer."
"I couldn't get away from that thing no matter how hard I tried," I said, frowning.
"Ah, well, that was part of the charm from the witch—I can't be caught. To be honest, I didn't really know it was working until now."
Auguste cleared his throat. "It may be that the beast was concentrating its effort on Esther. Regardless, I am very grateful you were nearby."
Booker grunted his agreement, and Ezra helped me shuffle to my stone golem, Auguste careful to keep my ankle propped up.
"Oh, Booker, you're soaked!" I gasped as I reached around him in a hug. I pressed my lips to his cheek, smiling into the kiss as his hands helped themselves to a brief squeeze of my ass. "Thank you for trying to rescue me and for getting Magdalena. Lord, I feel sore!"
My whole body seemed to tremble with any effort to move, and all three men on the bed with me were quick to rearrange me back into my reclining position. Out from the shadows stepped Dr. Underwood, bright hair gleaming under the lamp as he came to join us, a little glint of green remaining in his eyes.
"That's the strain from trying to free yourself," Underwood said, his eyes tracking quickly back and forth over my face. "It didn't seem that anything else was sprained, but tell me if there's any more pain."
"Come here," I murmured, and Auguste traded places with the doctor quickly. I smiled at his worried face, leaning forward. "Jonathon."
Dr. Underwood, Jonathon, sighed and his hands reached up to cup my face, drawing me in for a gentle kiss against my lips and then up to my forehead. The door to my bedroom opened at that moment, and I recognized the feminine sigh, or guessed who it came from at least.
"Esther, I'm so dreadfu
lly sorry," Magdalena said from the doorway, a tray of tea in her hands and a weary, frazzled expression on her face, hair sticking out at odd angles. "You must know, I had no notion—"
"Of course not," I said with a shrug, although I'd considered dark versions of the event while in the water.
"That was not the gentleman I thought was coming at all. It was an absolute deception and I—" Magdalena gasped and the tray rattled, Booker rising to take it from her. "I'm in a bit of a panic. Something's terribly wrong, and I—"
"Perhaps this might be better discussed elsewhere," Auguste said, and I was surprised by the aggressive look on his face, the way he glared at the woman and stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He'd seemed angry, but I hadn't realized it was with the Rooksgrave's Madame.
Magdalena straightened, her own face hardening and chin lifting. "A wraith entered the grotto. I will determine how, and how it made itself an introduction via our personal communications. There will be no unfamiliar visitors until I am certain I have Rooksgrave back under—"
"You didn't think Esther had quite enough—"
"Auguste," I called as the two faced-off. A cup of tea was thrust into my face, and Booker grunted, moving to block my view of my vampire and employer.
"Drink."
"Monsieur, I am more than well aware of how thoroughly I have been played in this matter," Magdalena answered coldly.
"You were careless," Auguste snapped.
"I don't deny it."
Jonathon's hand took mine in its cradle, and he caught my eye, lips twitching.
"Were they lovers?" I asked him, and when his eyebrows shot up, I added, somewhat sullenly, "They argue like it."
"We absolutely were not. No vampire would meddle with a witch," Auguste barked at me.
"Hear, hear," Ezra muttered.
Auguste nodded in solidarity before rounding on Magdalena again, his mouth opening in a snarl.
"Would anyone like to know what it said to me?" I asked.
For a moment, I thought I'd done the trick. Everyone spun to me, eyes wide, as if just now remembering that I'd been nearly dragged to my death, and maybe it was for more than just a bit of monstrous sport.