Shadowfae, page 19
part #1 of Shadowfae Chronicles Series
The water fairy grinned, indigo ichor staining her cracked gums. “Flowers for you, twinny. You smell good.”
And I bet you taste good. Care to let me try?
Grudging admiration soured my mouth. He never gave up. Reduced to a gibbering soul fragment and still pulling moves.
I pushed the fairy’s hand away and wriggled my hips to sit up, the wooden box chafing the backs of my thighs. My limbs felt watery, weak. Tangy furniture oil itched my nostrils, and I glanced around at tall windows draped with brocade curtains, lush green carpet, an antique mahogany dining suite, a stuffed pale velvet lounge.
My lungs clenched tight, robbing me of air. What kind of freak leaves space in their lounge room for a body-sized box? “What am I doing here? Why did you kidnap me?”
She laughed, hoarse, and the corner of her mouth cracked open, dust puffing from ruined skin. “I’m just here for the candy. For napping of kids ask the candyman.”
Her mention of food watered my mouth, and my ravenous stomach growled. But I remembered the dirty blood in her spew, writhing like living flesh, and apprehension skewered me, sharp and hateful. Suddenly the box was a no-brainer. The kind of vampire freak who likes torturing people, maybe? And if I was in a box, what had he done with Rajah?
Urgency gripped me, adrenaline seeping warmth into my blood. “Is this Dante’s place? Where is he?”
The fairy twisted her neck with a crack, listening to something I couldn’t hear, and put a ripped finger to dry lips. She winked, her voice husking to a conspiratorial whisper. “Hush-hush on pretty twinny, child. He won’t like it.”
Luna’s snaky shade thrashed, and cramps bit into my abdomen. Pay attention, wildcat. Can’t you smell him?
Warm breeze puffed over my face. A dark blur severed the air and solidified into Dante, black-clad, raindrops glinting in dark curls, spit running on hungry teeth. He yanked the fairy’s ragged hair back, forcing her chin up an inch from his face. “Don’t meddle.”
Dry white hanks broke off in his hand, and he grabbed more. Her silvery wings flapped uselessly, their translucent membranes crackling like cellophane. Her lips stretched, more dust crumbling from her face. “I told nothing. Just a looky. No telling.”
“I should hope not, if you want more.” He slid his fingers into her ruined hair, making it a caress instead of a threat, and wormed his tongue over her broken lip, tasting her sickness. “Say please.”
His whisper made her shiver, her black pupils slitting wide, her voice cracking. “Please.”
Disgust crawled over my skin like a fat black spider. The air suddenly chilled. No doubt he’d made me beg like this, and humiliation seared like frost in my heart. I wanted to wrap my naked body in my arms, cover myself. “Jesus, Dante. Leave her alone.”
He winked at me, malicious amusement glinting. “Your turn soon. Don’t be greedy.”
I wanted to scream shock into her veins, make her squirm away from his grip, but I realized I didn’t know her name. “He’s making you sick, darlin’, don’t go there.”
But she ignored me, fixated on him. Dante scraped one wicked fang over his own lip, dark blood welling.
“Please, Dante. Give it to me. I need it.” Her crusty lips trembled, and silver grit grimed her lashes, her tears thick and sluggish. “I want it.”
“Good enough for now.” He struck like a serpent for a kiss, rosy lips sliding on blue, his blood dribbling down her chin. She sighed and folded into his arms, deepening the kiss to suck out more. He groaned and cupped her breast, dragging her nipple to arousal.
Mmm. Luna’s shade stretched, sensual. Seems you like threesomes, Jade. Don’t waste it.
I looked away, nausea sliding in my stomach like a reptile’s scales. I didn’t want to watch Dante fuck her, bleed her, make her plead for more. It was too much like what he’d done to me.
But Dante pushed her away with a blood-smeared smile. “Enough. Leave us alone.”
She murmured in protest, licking ravenous lips, and my heart ached for her. She wiped her mouth with her frog-fingered hand, and it came away wet, not just with blood but also with water. A moment ago, her lips were crumbling. Now the wound was healed. She blinked, and moisture flowed into her gritty silver eyes. Her dull white hair sprang, newly fresh and shimmering, and her blue-veined cheek glistened damp and smooth, free of crumbling decay. She stretched her fingers, the pads glowing wet, and her smile shone clean, her teeth gleaming sharp.
I stared, confusion muddling my head like puzzle pieces tossed back into the box. I remembered sweet Nyx dissolving into wet rainbows on my sheets, Kane’s pretty fire sprite with ice in his hair. There was fae poison going around, all right, but it wasn’t Dante’s blood. He wasn’t making the water sprite sick. He was healing her, at least for now. Some snort it with sugar, she’d said. She’d spewed at Luna’s through overindulgence, not from poison.
The fairy twirled, water drops sparkling from her fingertips, iridescent fluid pulsing fresh in her wings. “Candy,” she whispered with a giggle, and fluttered away.
Dante licked his lips clean and sprawled on his lounge, a dark inkblot on pale velvet. He eyed me coolly, his dark blue gaze impersonal and bored. I recalled the way Rajah looked at me, warm, besotted, like I was the other half of his soul. The contrast made me shiver, gooseflesh crawling, my nakedness even colder now. How had I ever thought Dante compassionate?
He watched me squirm, and dark interest parted his lips, cruel fangtips bright. “Don’t scowl at me like that. We’re alike, you and I.”
I folded my arms, trying to pretend I didn’t care he could see everything. My fingers stung cold beneath my arms, my nipples tight and uncomfortable. “Sure, whatever you say. So what’s the plan, Dante? I’m naked in a box. Are you just going to stare at me? Or will you poison me, too?”
“I didn’t poison anyone.” A fine imitation of hurt creased his brow, his eyes shadowing with candid disappointment.
His upset caressed warm fingers of remorse over my heart, and I hated it. But I’d seen that fairy blossom and heal with my own eyes. Maybe Dante spoke the truth this time. Just because he’d lied to me didn’t mean he was guilty of everything.
But I couldn’t forget how he’d invaded me, raped my will and stolen my secret heart. “Right. Sure. A captive audience for your ‘antidote.’ Why would you want that?”
He laughed, incredulous, and a flush sparked my cold skin. I’d liked his laugh, so easy and genuine, and it hadn’t changed. “Listen to yourself. Why the hell would I want to poison fae? They’re creatures of chaos. I’d fill this fucking city with fae and watch it crumble. You want poison, look to your own.”
I stared. Glass splinters showering from a fluorescent tube, the hot gush of blood over Killian Quinn’s face. Flames curling around Kane’s fingertips, sparks lighting his hair. Nyx, color draining from his sweet face, his skin soaked in sick sweat when we’d tried to love.
Sick realization clamped my guts, and Luna slithered, giggling. Creatures of chaos. No one loved order better than Kane, so long as it was his order. I thought I’d drained Nyx’s energy, only I hadn’t. My rapture had. Kane’s jealous fragment, indignant at what I was doing. The only reason Rajah escaped unscathed was that rapture couldn’t affect him, not while he wore bangles of his own.
What might Kane himself be capable of? His moods could sizzle the sky with static if he didn’t keep them under control. Kane got pissed off, and people died. Fae died.
The lying prick was doing it himself.
So why the fuck did he send me to Dante in the first place?
Never trust a demon. Luna giggled again, and my stomach frothed like vomit waiting to happen. I gulped, painful.
Dante grinned. “Like I said. We’re alike, you and I.”
“And how’s that?”
“We hate being controlled. I’ve just got the guts to take what I want.”
“Yeah, that’s so admirable. I’ve always wanted to mesmerize people and enslave them with my blood but I’ve never had the guts. And wow, you just go right ahead and do it. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be flip. Blood is my power. Sex is yours. Don’t tell me you’ve never fucked someone just because you wanted to.”
I thought of Rajah and flushed again, even though rapture hadn’t been a factor. “That’s not the same.”
Dante’s eyes glinted. “And damning souls to hell for your freedom. So unselfish of you.”
The fact that they’d deserved it wasn’t making me feel better. “What the fuck would you know about unselfishness?”
He smiled, handsome. “No need to get defensive. I’m captivated. That thing with Luna was beautiful. And the way you used Rajahni . . .” He flicked his tongue over sharp teeth, saliva shining. “Ingenious.”
Shit. The soultrap. I’d left it at Rajah’s. But I didn’t care about that right now. I remembered the way he and Dante clashed at Luna’s, my joke that one day that protective impulse would get Rajah killed. Icy fear hacked into my ribs like a blunt knife. “What did you do to him?”
Dante grinned. “Never mind that. Let’s talk about us. Come here.” And the bastard stood and held his hand out to me, courteous and charming like I wasn’t kneeling naked in a coffin on his lounge room floor.
I stayed there, glaring at him, wishing for acid, a bee sting, anything to cause him pain. “You’ve got to be kidding—”
A dark weight crashed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs. I choked, my back pressed tight into the couch’s warmth, my limbs flung out before me. His forearm jammed across my throat, and his lips quivered an inch from mine, showing razor teeth. “You’re naked. I’m hungry. Don’t try my patience.” He let go and flung himself down beside me, glaring.
The brush of his coppery breath made my skin flinch, warmth crawling over me. The memory of blood filled my mouth, hot, arousing, and I swallowed. I didn’t want to play his games. They were too dangerous. “I’m bored. If you’re going to bite me, get on with it.”
He leaned closer, resting his head on his hand. “I will. I just want you to beg first.”
I laughed, trying not to stare at his teeth, the way the fangs brushed his bottom lip, delicate. “Never.”
“Never say never.” His gaze drew mine, hypnotic. “We’ve been through this already. I can help you. Just tell me what you want.”
My stomach twisted even as I stared, transfixed. Snaky wriggles churned my guts, and I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn’t move, the muscles rigid and useless. Don’t, Luna screeched, don’t want! But I couldn’t help it. My lips stretched, sluggish. “Won’t.”
“You will.” He stroked my hair back, caressing, his tongue flicking out to clean his teeth. His voice growled softly, almost a whisper, but it drilled straight to my core and splintered my resolve, plumbing to the depths of my most reckless, hidden need. “You don’t break my power over you by spewing, Jade. You drank my blood. I’ll own you forever. Now tell me again what you want most, and I’ll give it to you.”
20
Unsheathe your claws, wildcat, urged Luna, but I barely heard him. The warm, male scent of cardamom filled my nostrils, so dear to me, I trembled. Cold tears spilled onto my cheeks, and my most secret words dragged over my lips, compelled. “Love Rajah. Want him to stay with me.”
Dante smiled softly, shaking his head. “Even I can’t make that happen. He’s already forgotten you.”
“No.” My wits glugged like paste, cold and thick. “Won’t forget.”
“Trust me. How do you think I stole you away? He let me. The soultrap for the girl. He didn’t even blink. Do you think he’d give up his freedom for a whore like you?” He bent closer, caressing my temple with his, mingling our hair together. His cheek brushed mine, warm, and that horrid, wonderful flavor flooded my mouth, erasing everything else, seductive as he whispered in my ear. “That’s what you are, sweetie. A whore. Don’t you feel that sometimes?”
The taste of his hot, vibrant blood tingled on my tongue, intoxicating and fresh. He’d fed me again. While I slept. Horror crawled up my throat like vomit, burning, but I couldn’t stop the truth from spilling out. “Yes.”
“Do you really believe he gives a damn about you?”
Yes. I wanted to scream it out, banish my fear with reckless, unfounded confidence, but my tongue froze when I tried to speak. The syllable wouldn’t form, and my muscles contorted themselves into the vile truth. “Want to. Said he did. Took me home.”
“You don’t say. After watching you fuck his oldest enemy to death? Why do you think he’d do that?”
My throat clogged, and I couldn’t speak. Maybe, just because he felt like it. Because rapture made his cock hard and I was the closest thing. So he’d humored me, let me think he was washing me clean, lied to make me feel special. All so I’d let him put it wherever he wanted.
So fucking pathetic. A few orgasms and I’m in love.
With a man who makes a living screwing girls he doesn’t give a shit about.
Tears burned, soaking my lashes, trailing hot rivers down my cheeks. My chest swelled, swift and agonizing, the scarred skin of my heart ripping once more to shreds. I’d never wanted so badly to lie. But Dante’s gaze immobilized me, remorseless, the blood allowing nothing but cold, undeniable truth.
He traced my tears with warm lips, sucking the moisture away. “It’s okay, darlin’. You don’t have to answer that one. Just tell me how much it hurts.”
I choked on a sob. “Like the worst thing ever.”
“Do you want it to stop hurting?” His lips drifted to the corner of my mouth, warm and insistent.
I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. I let him kiss me, drag his tongue over my bottom lip, that tempting iron taste invading my mouth. “Yes.”
“And do you think it will? Ever?” His breath slid to my throat, hot razor teeth whispering over the dent where my pulse beat, thick and sore and weary. My sluggish nerves sparked in alarm, but before I could react, he slid his thigh over mine, trapping me beneath him. His body heat soaked over me, welcome in the chill, and my skin reacted with a slow flush. He inhaled my scent through parted lips, tasting me.
Luna struggled inside me, thrashing like a skewered reptile, and part of me wanted to struggle, too, but misery swamped me, smothering any desire to fight Dante off. He was right. I’d let Rajah break my heart, and it might never heal. After a thousand years, when my thrall bangles finally broke and Kane dragged me off to hell, I’d be thinking of Rajah, his cheeky laugh, the way I didn’t feel alone and useless anymore when he looked at me, and I’d curse myself for being so sad and hopeless and empty that I hadn’t interested him for more than a few hours. A few hours of bliss in a millennium.
Dante yanked my head back by the hair, snarling softly, spit running on curved fangs. His blue eyes shone bright, glazed, intoxicated. His body quivered, tight and coiled like a serpent about to strike, and his skin glowed with arousal. God, he was beautiful, this creature of death.
I’d thought that the night I met him, before I’d ever seen the primal animal inside. But the way he surrendered to his beast made me stare, transfixed. Envy coursed through me, hot and tempting. I wanted to touch, learn, take. Was that how I looked when the rapture stole my reason? In perfect submission, unfettered, free?
No. It wasn’t. Dante loved his compulsion. I hated mine.
“Answer me, Jade. Will the pain ever stop?” He scraped his mouth over my collarbone and down to my breast, flicking his sinuous tongue over my nipple. My flesh responded, hardening, and he bit me, playful like a kitten, teasing out pleasure that swelled in my breast and slithered through my veins to heat my sex.
I shivered, helplessness welling inside me. Maybe I could have hit him, pushed him off me, jammed my knee into his swollen groin. But I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want to be strong anymore. I just wanted it to end. “No. The pain won’t ever stop.”
He sucked me, pulling my nipple taut in his hot mouth, stinging teeth scraping my breast. Breathlessly he slid to the floor in front of me and dragged his lips over my ribs. He chewed lightly on my hipbone, his tight dark curls teasing my belly. “So what do you want from me?”
I let my head fall back, squeezing my swollen eyes shut. The words he wanted clogged my mouth, and my tongue jerked, longing to spit them out. Don’t, Luna warned, sharp claws of caution slashing inside my abdomen, but I ignored him.
I thought of Rajah, how we’d loved, the beautiful friction between us, the way my heart swelled when he held me, kissed me, slid into me like he belonged there. For a few precious hours, I didn’t hate what I was. And now only a few hours later, here I was naked under another man.
It didn’t matter that I was a prisoner, that Dante would never let me go until he was satisfied. I was still here, conscious, letting it all happen while some other guy took possession of me. Got off on my body like I was a sex doll. Smeared me with lust and spit and blood, touched me in places and ways I only ever wanted Rajah to touch me again.
The reality of my thrall crashed in on me like a stinking mudslide. Kane whistled me up, and I fucked. It was as simple as that. Without the Luna soultrap, there was no escaping it. Even if I gambled on the wafer-thin chance that Rajah would even speak to me again, how could I ever look him in those beautiful golden eyes and tell him I loved him and only him, when every other week I was prostituting myself for some lustful stranger?
My horrid bangles stung, and caustic tears forced into my eyes. I tried to blink them away, in case Dante thought they were because of him, but my sorrow swelled like a cancer, strangling me. It was no good. There was no hope for us, and now I’d tasted love, breathed heavenly air in that magical place where I thought Rajah cared for me, the next eight hundred years without him stretched ahead even longer and more unbearable. Even if he did harbor some residue of sympathy for me, it was better I died now than watch his affection dissolve while I whored. Every interminable day, I’d think of him, imagine his lost smile, the missing twinkle in his eyes. Every night when I went to bed alone I’d miss him, every careless body I touched would make me long for his caress. Every guy I fucked, I’d weep for Rajah.
