Skulduggery 9, page 21
I let Golierian return to the barracks by himself, and while I watched him walk away, I couldn’t help but grin. An elf had just pledged his undying loyalty to me and my future kingdom, and I knew that this was only the beginning.
But in the meantime, we really had some work to do.
I hurried back through my city as quickly as possible, passed back through the catacombs and the portal room, and re-emerged into the City of Slaves while it was still dark. As I approached our home base in the city, I felt a slight warmth from the Rainbow Keys in my pocket, and even though it wasn’t enough to make me think that anything was wrong, it was enough to make me alert as I entered through the front door.
All the lamps were burning inside our apartment to give it a soft golden glow, and right in the middle of all the lamps in the living room, were Penny and Dar. Ava was nowhere to be seen, but Penny and Dar were drinking tea in a circle, and it was the third member of their little circle that caught my attention.
Clodia.
Chapter 13
“Your new friend decided to drop in for a surprise visit,” Penny growled as she raised her teacup to me. “Isn’t that so nice?”
“Very,” I said as I pulled up a chair to join them. “Clodia, it’s nice to see you again so soon after our last… visit.”
“I did hate to drop in unannounced,” the guild master said with a sly smile. “Well, that’s not entirely true. You know I love a good surprise.”
“And we love to be surprised,” Dar said with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t we, Wade?”
“Oh, I can’t think of anything better,” I said, “unless, of course, I’m the one who’s got the surprise up their sleeves.”
“Mmm, yes, that’s nice too,” Clodia purred. “See, the thing is that… well, I need to talk to you alone, Wade.”
“She won’t tell us what it’s about,” Penny said, “even though we told her that we don’t have any secrets.”
“Kinda makes you wonder if she just came here to talk to you,” Dar muttered, “or if she had something else in mind.”
“I can’t imagine what you mean,” Clodia said with her nose up in the air.
“Like Penny said,” I told her with a wink, “we don’t have any secrets here.”
“Oh!” Clodia actually blushed a pale shade of purple along the blue skin of her cheekbones. “Then you both… you both know that we…”
“Um, yeah,” the redheaded pixie replied. “It’s not like that came as some great big shock, you know.”
“Wade, just so you know, we haven’t seen Ava,” Dar said. “Penny and I ran out for some food to bring back, and when we got back here, Clodia was waiting for us, and Ava wasn’t inside.”
“Yes, who is this mysterious Ava?” Clodia demanded. “I didn’t realize you had brought another friend from back home.”
“It’s alright, Ava,” I called. “You can come out now.”
Immediately, the blonde assassin emerged from the shadows of the kitchen, and the moment he saw her, Dar fumbled with his teacup and damn near shattered the whole thing.
“Where the fuck have you been?” the halfling demanded. “How did you-- I looked in the kitchen!”
“We looked everywhere,” Penny added. “Where were you hiding?”
“It’s all part of the job,” Ava said with a shrug. “I’m very good at blending in, and I thought I could keep a better eye on you two from the shadows until Wade got back.”
“But that was--” Dar started.
“Holy shit,” Clodia interrupted as she stood up to face Ava. “By the fucking Ancients, you look like--”
“Like Aleron?” Ava asked as she seated herself beside me and put her hand on my thigh. “Yes, I’ve heard.”
I loved so much that Ava pretended as if she had always known her father’s identity, instead of the truth that she had only known about him for less than twenty-four hours. But Clodia didn’t need to know that because at the end of the day, it was Ava’s information to share or keep to herself.
“So one of the assassin guild master’s half-breed spawn actually survived to adulthood,” Clodia said with raised eyebrows. “No offense, of course.”
“Mhm,” Ava said flatly.
“And,” the guild master continued, “I take it from your weapons and your ability to surprise even me that you must have followed in your father’s footsteps, whether accidentally or on purpose.”
“I am an assassin, yes,” Ava replied, “but it is not because of him.”
“Well,” Clodia exhaled, “isn’t that fascinating? If Aleron could see you now… but I suppose he can’t, can he?”
I immediately understood the reason why Clodia was here. She must have heard about the deaths of all the other guild masters by now, and she had come to confront me about it… or at the very least, to find out more details.
“And why not?” I grinned like I didn’t know the exact reason.
“You know damn well why,” Clodia growled, “but Wade, I’d really just feel so much more comfortable if we could speak alone. Just for a few minutes, perhaps?”
“That’s fine,” I said, “but first, I need to talk to my friends. Go wait for me outside the front door, and I’ll come get you when I’m ready to talk.”
I watched as Dar’s face went white at the tone of command in my voice, but the guild master just curled her lip, gathered up the hem of her robes, and swept toward the front door.
“I’ll be waiting,” she said, and then she closed the door behind her.
“Ancients’ balls,” Dar gasped. “I can’t believe she just… that you just…”
“That you just ordered the great guild master Clodia around like that,” Penny finished for him. “That was goddamn sexy.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I laughed. “Now, before I talk to her about the next phase of our plan and answer any questions she has about the guild masters’ deaths, I need to talk to you all about what I found out from Twila and Cim.”
I told my friends everything that I’d learned as quickly as I could, and that included the date of the equinox festival, the night that we needed to poison all the wineries, and Golierian’s pledge of loyalty to me. I told Dar that he would need to poison the wineries in Riverhome and the City of Slaves, but that our other friends could take care of the rest.
“And what about us?” Penny asked with a nod at Ava. “What do you want us to do?”
“Oh, I have a feeling that I’m going to need both your help with the winery in the Blood City,” I said, “but I’ll tell you about that later. First, I’d better take care of Clodia.”
“Should we leave?” Ava asked. “So you can have some, uh, privacy?”
“Well, I probably want to go ahead and get to Riverhome, so I can start planning how to get into the winery there,” Dar said. “I’ve already got an idea for the winery here, based on what I’ve seen, but I should go do some research on the place in Riverhome.”
“We could go check on the human guards in town,” Ava said. “We can make sure they have everything that they need. Plus, we can tell them our planned date of attack.”
“Even though it’s the middle of the night?” Penny asked.
“A soldier should always be ready,” Ava replied. “It’ll do their commanders good to be woken up in the middle of the night. It can be a sort of test run.”
“Ooh, that sounds fun,” the red-haired pixie said.
“Then, if you all wouldn’t mind, I think some privacy would be good,” I told them. “Clodia is still getting used to all of you, so she’ll probably be more honest with me about things if it’s just the two of us.”
“Then we’ll be back later,” Penny said. “But if you need us, we won’t stay away too long.”
“I think he’ll manage,” Ava said with a sly grin.
After they gathered their things, all three of my friends headed out the front door, and when they had disappeared down the street, I turned to Clodia beside the front door and gestured for her to come inside.
“Now, where were we?” I asked as we sat down in two chairs across from each other.
“We were talking about Aleron and how he’s…” Clodia hesitated and glanced around, as if there might be someone else hidden in the shadows.
“How he’s what?” I demanded.
“Dead,” the guild master hissed. “And all the other guild masters, too.”
“Really?” I grinned. “They all just dropped dead at once, did they?”
“They were poisoned,” Clodia said, “and from what I’ve heard so far, it sounds an awful lot like nightshade. You poisoned them, didn’t you? That’s why you didn’t want me to go to that party, right?”
“What if it is?” I asked as I leaned forward until my face was just inches away from hers. “And so what if I did? What are you going to do about it?”
“How do you expect me not to turn you in?” Clodia whispered. “There wasn’t much love lost between me and the other guild masters, but Wade… you didn’t just poison half a dozen elves. You poisoned half a dozen of the most important elves in the whole empire.”
“I did?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
“There will be an investigation.” She crossed her arms. “Someone will need to be found guilty. Someone will have to pay for this transgression.”
“Oh, you won’t turn me in,” I said, and I started to run my hands up the outside of her thighs. “But yeah, it was me.”
“Well, aren’t you cocky?” Clodia arched an eyebrow.
“Don’t tell me you’re still thinking about my cock,” I snickered.
“It would be impossible for me to stop thinking about it,” the night elf purred into my ear as she leaned forward. “It would be like telling me not to think about the air that I’m breathing.”
“Then I’ll make you a deal,” I said and stopped my hands halfway up her thighs. “I’ll give you one good reason why you’re not going to turn me in, for every time that you come for me. Deal?”
“Deal,” Clodia said and then bit down on her lip. “So should I--”
“Just stay right where you are,” I said. “I’ll take care of this first one.”
I slid to the ground in front of her, hiked up her skirts until I could see the dark lips of her pussy, and then leaned forward to kiss her slick entrance. As soon as I started to work my tongue around her narrow slit, the night elf began to moan softly, and when I started to thrust my tongue in and out of her smooth tunnel, Clodia moaned even louder as she ran her nails through my hair.
I could tell from how wet she already was for me that she really had been thinking about me a lot, so I doubted it would take very long for her to reach her first climax. I slipped two fingers toward her waiting entrance, and while I continued to suck and lick her pussy, I slid my fingers inside her at the same time so I could reach even further into her velvety tunnel.
“Ohh,” Clodia moaned, but then she suddenly gasped. “Oh! Ohhh!”
As the night elf cried out and gripped the sides of her chair, I wrapped one arm around her leg to keep her in place until the orgasm completely took over her, and then, while Clodia shrieked in pleasure, I licked up her salty-sweet juices as she came for me.
When she finished, I pulled away from her and then slid my fingers back out of her tight tunnel. I inched forward and offered my fingers to her, and without any hesitation, Clodia sucked them clean as she looked up at me with her dark eyes.
“That’s one,” I said, “so here’s the first reason you won’t turn me in. You don’t have any fucking proof that it was me, and there’s no way that you can come up with any evidence otherwise.”
“Good point,” Clodia panted. “But what other reasons do you have?”
“Oh, that’s not the deal,” I said as I stood up in front of her. “The deal is one reason per orgasm, remember?”
Clodia bit her lip again and nodded, so I pulled her to her feet and spun her around so that my hard cock pressed up against her ass. I ran my hands up the sides of her hips, and then I gripped her by the waist.
“Bend over,” I said.
Immediately, the guild master leaned forward to thrust her ass in the air toward me, so I unbuckled my pants, pulled up her skirts, and pressed the tip of my shaft up against her wet entrance.
“So do you want that second reason?” I demanded.
“Yes, please!” Clodia cried out.
“I’ll give you one big hint,” I said, and then I thrust my cock into the tight guild master.
“What’s--” Clodia gasped. “What’s that?”
“Only one guild master survived the poisoning because they didn’t show up in the first place,” I said as I pulled her hips toward me to plunge my shaft deeper inside her, “and that’s you, sweetheart.”
“Yessssss… ” Clodia moaned. “Oh, Wade.”
I pressed my hand down on the middle of her back to keep her face down in the seat of the chair, while I continued to fuck her from behind. Her legs had already started to quiver, so I shifted the angle of my thrusts ever so slightly, and then the guild master really started to moan.
When she came again, I had to wrap my hands around her waist to keep her legs from giving out from under her, and when she finished, she half-pushed herself up onto her elbows in the chair and twisted around to look at me.
“Fuck,” she gasped, “how many reasons do you have for me not to turn you in?”
“Just the right number,” I laughed. “So can you guess the rest of reason number two?”
“I’ll look like a suspect?” Clodia bit her lip.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Plus, there’s other evidence against you that doesn’t look good, besides just the fact that you were the only guild master who didn’t show up and get killed.”
“Such as?” the guild master asked.
I gripped her braid and pulled her up so that she stood straight against me, but then I slipped my cock back out of her and marched her forward to stand with her face against the wall and with me still right behind her.
“Two elven soldiers saw Dar and me break into the guild masters’ headquarters the night before the party,” I said as I pushed her up against the wall, “and I might have lied and said that we work for you, so that’s certainly not going to work in your favor.”
“Those are all good points,” Clodia groaned when I pressed my cock up against her dripping entrance again. “But I’m still very powerful in this city, so I could… ohh… probably convince everyone… fuck, that feels good… otherwise.”
I hadn’t even thrust into her yet, but I kept just barely pushing my tip past the lips of her pussy, and every time, the guild master whined with pleasure a little louder than before.
“Then it’s a good thing that I have a third reason,” I growled as I pulled back on her hair until I was able to kiss her.
As soon as I kissed her, I twisted her head back around to face the front, and then I plunged my stiff cock into the beautiful night elf. Instantly, Clodia flung her hands up toward the wall for a little extra stability, and I let her keep them there while I kept a tight grip on her hair and continued to pump my hips into her again and again.
“And what’s… ohhh… the third reason… oh, shit… that I won’t… oh, fuckk… turn you in?” Clodia gasped.
“Because,” I growled into her ear, “I fucking said not to. And you do whatever the fuck I tell you to do.”
“Ohh!” Clodia cried out.
From the way that her pussy clenched around my cock, I knew that she was close again, so I spread her legs apart a little more so I could thrust my full length into her even deeper.
“Ohhh… fuck, yes…” Clodia gasped again. “Just tell me… what to do!”
“The first thing you can do for me is come again,” I said. “Right about… now.”
I thrust into her again, and this time, I stayed deep inside of her so I could reach around and play with her clit from the front. I worked it gently at the same time that I grinded my pelvis against hers, and just a few seconds later, the night elf arched her back against me and let a final orgasm crest over her.
I let myself release at the same time, so after one more thrust into her narrow entrance, I felt the hot sperm burst from my cock, and then I filled up the guild master’s tight tunnel with my seed. I aggressively pumped my hips into her three more times to get the last sprays of my cum past her puckered cervix and into her accepting womb, and then I pulled out of her, released my grip on her hair, scooped her up into my arms, and walked calmly back into the middle of the living room.
I set her down gently on one of the chairs before I sat down across from her, but as soon as I was seated, Clodia slid to the floor and knelt in front of me.
“Do you know how long it’s been since anyone ordered me around?” Clodia whispered, and then she just took the tip of my shaft into her mouth so she could suck out the last few drops.
“Too long?” I purred as she began to clean my entire cock with her lips and tongue.
When she finished, I buckled my pants back up, but Clodia stayed where she was and just laid her head on my knee. She looked like a tamed, but very content, house cat, so I just smiled and tucked a strand of blue-black hair behind her ear from where it had come loose from her thick braid.
“I can’t believe you outsmarted me,” Clodia finally said as she opened her eyes to look up at me. “When you said not to go to the party, I just assumed it was some kind of test. To prove that I was loyal to you after everything… you know, after everything you did to me in the dungeon.”
“And are you?” I demanded. “Loyal?”
“That depends,” Clodia said with a sly smile. “Am I your woman now?”
“Yes, you’re my woman now.” I pulled her up from the floor to sit on my leg, and I grabbed her hair and pulled her down so I could run my tongue across her slender neck. “You are mine. Mine to fuck. Mine to control. And mine to impregnate. Unless, of course, you’d rather be dead like those bastards who all got poisoned at their own party. How do you feel about that?”
“Oh, those fools can go fuck themselves,” Clodia moaned as I lightly bit her, but then she laughed. “Well, I guess they can’t now, since you killed them. But to answer your question…”
