27
EVIE
K ylo, in his deceptive human form, caught my fist with ease before it clipped his jaw.
“Good afternoon to you too, baby,” he said gruffly, his blue eyes flashing as a muscle in his jaw feathered.
He grabbed my other fist before I could lift it, snaking his fingers to circle around my wrists as he stared down at me. He studied my features, and it only made me angrier.
He was looking for more weaknesses to exploit.
“My guard said there was a born vampire at Celeste’s,” Kylo murmured. “And that you went home before selling the goods in your backpack.”
“Excellent sleuthing skills,” I spat with venom. “Do you also know what I ate for breakfast this morning?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had to keep a short leash on my anger, to not let it rise and spill over like it had the day of the storm. When I opened my eyes again, I focused on the vivid colors of flowers surrounding us, the trees with bright green leaves gently turning in the wind. Besides the rich tapestry of energies and spirits of the otherworld, we were alone. The air was quiet and serene in the vastness of Etherdale’s largest gardens.
Kylo didn’t answer that last question. He merely sighed. “Did they let you go because of the born’s inquiries? If they did, then they’re cowards, Evie.”
I shook my head, contempt curling my lip. “No, that would make them intelligent . My goods don’t matter more than other people's lives.” I couldn’t look at his face, the fake empathy softening those deadly, conniving features. “I’m removing myself from the equation. I know the owners protected me, because they’re good people. So now I’m going to protect them.”
“By giving up on your dreams,” Kylo said softly, a tinge of irritation in his tone.
My eyes snapped to his. “I’m not giving up. Everything that has happened since you entered my life has been against my will!”
I snagged on the momentary lapse in Kylo’s impenetrable mask, the flash of guilt.
He dropped my wrists. “If blaming me for everything actually helps you, then fine. I’ll take it. But your refusal to accept reality is holding you back.”
The words triggered something small and wounded inside of me, melting my anger into something more pathetic.
“Why don’t you want to blame the born?” he asked, his gaze so imploring that it felt like the harshest, most exposing rays of the sun. “I know it’s not because you’re a loyalist.”
“Of course not,” I said, urging my lips not to wobble.
I wasn’t loyal to King Earle or Lord Conrad or any of Lillian’s soulless demons. I was loyal to Idris. I was loyal to Mena. And I wanted all of this violence to just stop .
“Then why?” he asked. “Why can’t you see that the born are the reason you’re unsafe—the reason, I suspect, that you’ve been unsafe for a long time? You were attacked by a born vampire only weeks ago, a man who was merely bored and thought you looked like a tasty meal.”
I shuddered. Kylo lifted his hands, but he seemed to think better of reaching for me.
He swallowed. “When the demons in power are allowed to do as they please, unchecked and without consequence, they will only become crueler, greedier, and more soulless and depraved. You are not choosing safety when you choose not to fight. You are choosing the comfort of the danger to which you’ve grown accustomed. This only works in their favor.”
I hated that he lectured me like I was a child, as if my reasoning and actions were nonsensical compared to his supreme logic.
“Why can’t you see that the reason your brother has an interest in joining the clan is because he’s tired of watching the born murder, torture, and kidnap mortals? He’s not being brainwashed. He simply sees what’s happening in this city—this realm—with his own two eyes.”
Rage took hold with a sudden swiftness. Violence gathered in my palms. Kylo sensed it, and in a matter of seconds I was, once again, on my back while he straddled me. Surrounding us was a semi-translucent, strange wall of shadow. Grass tickled my ears.
Kylo pinned my wrists above my head as he stared hard into my eyes. My chest rose and fell rapidly.
“You are not defenseless, Evie,” he said, his voice slightly strained. “Far from it. It is your refusal to accept who you are that has landed you in the most danger.”
“You don’t know him,” I hissed, writhing beneath him as he leaned in close. “Don’t talk about my brother. You have no idea who he is or—” I blinked, quickly censoring myself. “You don’t know anything about us.”
“I. Want. To.” His eyes darkened, then dropped to my lips. “I want to know you , Evie. I want to help you understand your magick. I want to see you follow through on your every last dream. I want to show you that after years of keeping everyone safely behind those tall, impenetrable walls, you can finally let someone through.”
I shook my head. My power deflated underneath him. The more he spoke, the more he cut through my addiction to my own denial.
“You are the most frighteningly complex creature I have ever encountered. It will be my greatest honor to earn your faith and trust. To help, protect, and care for you in all the ways you deserve.”
I stared at him, feeling the weight of his hold on my wrists, the heaviness of his dark, hungry gaze on my body.
The shadow glamour evaporated, like clouds receding from the sun.
The only thing more loathsome than Kylo’s decimation of my cherished, avoidant sense of reality was the fact that he and his sneaky shadows had already snuck past my walls.
I wanted to tell him I hated him. But it would be a lie. The truth was that I was terrified of him. Terrified of the way he was yanking me out of my tower, crumbling it from within, and forcing me to live out in this wide-open field, where nothing was safe, nothing was certain or predictable.
The world had opened to me. Irreversibly. And it gave me nowhere to run.
Even as he pinned me beneath him, there was tenderness in his deep irises. “I fucking adore you, Evie. I have since the moment I first saw you.”
I closed my eyes, yearning to curl up in a defensive position as if he were stabbing me.
All of this anger and confusion and fear and yearning coalesced into heat that moved low, pooling in my lower stomach.
Rage burned behind my eyelids. Desire stoked my blood.
When I opened my eyes again, I anchored myself in the certainty of his gaze.
“There’s my sweet, docile angel,” he murmured, releasing wrists.
I wanted to punch him.
I kissed him instead.
My hands tangled in his black hair. His held my face as he consumed me, leaving me no room to breathe or think.
His tongue chased mine. This kiss felt like war. Like we couldn’t get enough of each other—and maybe we never would.
Kylo won. He destroyed my defenses, just as I always knew he would. His tongue invaded my mouth. His lips overpowered mine. When his teeth teased my lower lip, I felt his fangs as if they’d escaped his glamour.
Then he moved to my neck, sucking at my skin in a way that made my heart flutter. Pleasure was a gentle wave that radiated outward, draining me of all semblance of self-preservation.
“Sweet girl,” he hummed against my neck, inhaling deeply. “I already know you’re going to be my new favorite taste.”
Delirious from his touch, I was slow to tense underneath him. “You want to feed from me,” I said. With his lips on my collarbone, my voice came out as more of a moan.
I wanted to be horrified.
When the familiar voice whispered about the importance of keeping my blood pure, it had the opposite effect. My curiosity was a dark desire, indicative of the dangerous way my body responded to his deceptive, vampiric tricks.
Kylo smirked, raising up and lightly stroking my cheek. “Baby, what makes you think I was talking about your blood?”
When his finger traced my jugular, I squirmed. My thighs pressed together, his words shocking me as soon as I put together what he meant.
“Men actually enjoy… doing that?” I asked.
Kylo frowned, his eyes darkening a shade. “Gods above, Evie. I am simultaneously infuriated by and grateful for your past partner’s inadequacies.” He glared at my lips. “Because on the one hand, the thought of anyone else tasting you makes me feel…”
I gasped when his hand slipped under my dress, his touch brushing against the most sensitive part of me.
“… violent ,” he growled, and I sensed that violence in his flare of power. “On the other hand, what useless waste of a human could ever let you believe that you don’t deserve to be devoured at every opportunity?”
He found my clit, teasing before applying steady pressure and friction.
“He, um,” I stuttered. Gods, I couldn’t think straight anymore. “He said that things like that were only pleasurable for women. Only—” I lost my train of thought as Kylo tormented me. “Only normal in romance novels.”
Kylo laughed, but it contained no humor. His gaze tore straight through me, his lip curling.
“We’re, oh gods,” I moaned. “We’re in public, Kylo.”
“Shh, angel,” he whispered, kissing me briefly on my lips and then next to my mouth. “My needy, desperate, good girl,” he said, equal parts degradation and praise.
It only drove these waves of pleasure to new heights. My legs shook violently, noises I didn’t recognize leaving my lips—breathy and high-pitched.
“My name on your lips nearly made up for you talking about another man while I’m playing with your pretty little pussy,” he growled. “But the dissatisfaction you suffered before you became mine seems like more than enough punishment.”
“I’m not—” I cursed, and Kylo grinned. “I’m not yours .”
“Aw,” he said, pouting his lip. “Are you sure about that, baby?”
He yanked his hand away.
I made a frustrated noise of utter betrayal, and he only laughed at me.
His grin didn’t shift as he grabbed my throat and squeezed. “Your body knows who the fuck it belongs to.”
I glared.
“I wonder what consequences such a bold, bratty look warrants,” he said. He sighed, glancing up at the shrubs mostly enclosing us from prying eyes. “We’re alone by my design, you know. I have a couple of guards fielding people away from this part of the gardens. They’re saying there was an altercation with vampire hunters and the area should be avoided.”
That was a relief.
“All this power isn’t good for your already over-inflated ego,” I said as he squeezed at my airways.
I was lightheaded, frustrated, and swimming with pleasure.
“It wasn’t a power flex. It was merely a kindness, a small reassurance for your precious, fearful heart.”
I didn’t understand what he meant until his shadows began to leak from his glamour, pinning my arms above my head.
“I hope you don’t mind, angel, but I will need to be masked for this next part. Out of an abundance of caution.”
His tattoos came into focus, and smoky shadows reached for his face, melding into a solid skull mask. It was diagonally jagged, once again leaving part of the left side of his face and his mouth exposed.
“Let me go,” I spat.
“Don’t you understand, sweet girl?” he said with a smile, lording over my body like a demonic prince of Lillian’s underworld. “ I will never let you go .”
Another shadow reached up my body. As soon as I opened my mouth to protest again, its tip crawled across my mouth and solidified into a gag.
“Hmph!” My voice was pitiful and muffled.
Kylo groaned. “Your sexiest noise yet.” His fingers circled my right nipple once before squeezing it.
A burst of pain shot through my system before it landed in my core as a pool of strange, surprising pleasure.
“Brats get gagged, baby,” Kylo said. “Actions have consequences. Be grateful I’m going easy on you. There are much larger things I could shove into that testy little mouth to pacify you.”
He squeezed my second nipple. “If you ever actually want me to stop, simply kick me three times in quick succession. Understood?”
I said fuck you into my gag, but it came out as mush.
“I’m going to assume that was a polite, adorable, yes, Kylo. ”
The impersonality of his mask, the show of his power, the bondage of his shadows—it all made me melt beneath him. My brain was being shut off against my will, and all I could do was lean into the blissful thoughtlessness.
Kylo pushed up my dress.
No. Not like this. I didn’t want my first time to be like this.
I prepared to kick him three times. But I halted when I realized he made no move to unclothe himself. He wasn’t trying to take my virginity. Instead, he moved lower, his face now between my thighs.
This felt wrong in a completely different way. I’d been taught that it was wrong. Why did he care so much about my pleasure when I gave him little in return? It didn’t make any sense.
“Do not move,” Kylo warned.
My eyes widened as I saw what he now held in his hand. Sunlight reflected off the pristine metal of a dagger. The hilt was made of onyx, inscribed with barely perceptible sigils.
He lowered the blade between my legs. I went utterly still. Panic was a volatile force in my veins.
Kylo suddenly inhaled, exposing his fangs. He almost looked pained. “Gods above, baby, please. The scent of your blood was already powerful enough. The fear and arousal make it maddening.”
In a quick movement, he cut away my panties with the blade. His mask of shadow slipped for only a few short seconds. And as I stared down at him, wrists still bound and mouth gagged with shadow, I lost my ability to breathe.
Because the look on his face was like nothing I’d expected.
It was reverent.
As if he was in worship. In devotion. In awe .
His mask restructured. His thumb gently rubbed my clit before passing through my folds. “Evie darling, I’m going to feast on you now. Be a good girl and come on my tongue as many times as you can.”