The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 22

Quinn

Before Torrent could get into his report, my morning alarm pealed from my phone. The shadowkind men fell silent while I popped my pills and grabbed a glass of water to chase them. Crag followed me into the kitchen and insisted on heaping a plate with slices of fruit and the premade sandwiches he’d obtained for me.

I hadn’t eaten all night other than a couple of hasty snacks, so I guessed he had a point. But as soon as the plate was in my hands, I sat down on the linen sofa and focused on Torrent, who’d propped himself against the wall next to the window. “You found out something about the leviathan.”

“Yes.” His supporting tentacles flexed uneasily. “It took a lot of searching. I got the impression that a lot of the shadowkind who enjoy the mortal oceans have had some kind of encounter with him but were too nervous to admit to it.”

Rollick sat down on the arm of the sofa. “And what did you learn from the ones who were willing to talk?”

Torrent’s mouth twisted. “Apparently he’s been hanging out in the area of the Bermuda Triangle quite a bit for more than a century. Wrecking boats and even managing to take down the occasional plane and hide them away to unnerve the mortals. But he hasn’t stuck to that area all of the time. One merman speculated that he might have had something to do with a couple of tsunamis that’ve caused a lot of destruction on the other side of the globe.”

Rollick’s expression had darkened. “He’s pushing the boundaries of what he can get away with without drawing too much attention to the supernatural source of the disasters. Sounds a lot like the approach I gather the behemoth was taking before they joined up.”

As I forced down the last bite of the sandwich segment I’d been eating, my skin crept with apprehension. “And it’s all directed against human beings. Is that their end goal? Is that how they figure shadowkind will have this world for themselves—they’re going to kill all of us?”

Torrent blinked. “They’re doing what now?”

I stewed in my horror as the other men filled him in on what we’d found out near the rift. Then Rollick turned to me. “That can’t be it. They wouldn’t get away with it.”

“Even if they bring hordes of shadowkind through that enlarged rift to help them?”

“Even then. For one thing, they wouldn’t need a bigger rift for that. They’d just need to call them through all over the world, and there are more than enough rifts to summon a massive army in minutes if they could convince enough to come over.”

“You’re not being very reassuring,” I muttered.

The demon gave my shoulder a teasing prod. “Even the biggest army of shadowkind they could raise wouldn’t be a match for humans eventually. There are already hunters scattered across the globe who know what our weaknesses are. If they saw that shadowkind were making themselves an open threat to humanity, they’d share that knowledge widely. Walmart would start carrying copies of that crossbow of yours. We might be powerful, but we do have a few very basic weaknesses. You could kill me right now with that contraption no matter how old I am or how much magic I have.”

“They’d lose eventually,” Crag put in. “It wouldn’t be a good plan. It wouldn’t make anyone happy for very long. But a lot of mortals and shadowkind would die if they decided to attempt it anyway.”

“Then they’re idiotic as well as tricksy,” Lance declared. “Why would they want to get rid of mortals anyway? Humans are part of what makes this realm so much fun.” He flopped down on the sofa next to me and tucked his arm around my waist.

I set my half-finished plate onto the side table and let myself lean into the dragon shifter a little. “These two don’t seem to think so. Or maybe what’s fun for them is seeing us suffer.”

“I think they’ve been too strategic to simply be aiming for temporary chaos,” Rollick said, frowning. “And it doesn’t explain what they’re doing with the rift. I don’t think they are powerful enough to summon that large an army anyway. They only managed to take control of a couple of the Highest’s warriors—they had to kill the others. They have enough of a force right now to put our small group in danger and menace a single city, but the entire world?”

“It does sound like there’s a piece we’re missing,” Torrent agreed, his face gone even more somber.

Crag squared his shoulders. “Then we’ll keep searching until we understand.”

I scooted closer to Lance, tipping my head against the crook of his neck and letting his nuzzle of my hair comfort me as much as any gesture could. “Whatever it is, it’s obviously going to be bad for humankind. And any shadowkind who don’t want to see us tormented.”

Rollick took on his usual confidently authoritative air. “I have contacts looking into all sorts of things around the city. Our opponents seem to mostly be active at night. We’ll see what my people turn up in the meantime, and then we’ll track down a minion who has a better idea of their masters’ plans.”

“What if none of the minions know?” I had to ask. “What if the two head honchos are keeping it to themselves?”

A gloom fell over the room. We all knew that wasn’t just possible but actually fairly likely.

“Then we’ll wait and see their next moves, and learn what we can from those,” Torrent said evenly.

While more people would probably die in the meantime. There’d been at least a dozen more attacks across this city tonight. And more shadowkind would die too—the ones being sacrificed, and the ones who dared to go up against these monsters… which might end up including the men around me.

I closed my eyes, wishing I could sink right into Lance and never let him go. Wishing the catastrophe I’d gotten wrapped up in didn’t seem to be growing with every passing day.

The dragon shifter pressed a gentle kiss to my temple and let his lips linger there, his claws stroking along the curve of my torso. “We’re here with you, baby girl,” he crooned. “We’re not going anywhere.”

He couldn’t really promise that, though—not when we were up against enemies this powerful and brutal. But I wanted to believe it.

His head lowered, trailing kisses down the side of my face and nipping my earlobe. His claws skimmed my thigh with just enough force to send a giddy prickling sensation over my skin, and a wash of heat spread from where he’d touched to pool between my legs. Suddenly I wanted a whole lot more than just to believe him.

Lance picked up on the shift in my mood as quickly as he usually did. He dipped his mouth to my neck and tested the fangs he’d brought out against the tender flesh there, bringing a gasp to my throat. “Maybe our woman needs a more concrete reminder of just how much we’re here with her.”

Yes. If there wasn’t any way we could fight these villains right now regardless, I wanted to lose myself in the pleasure my three lovers could conjure in my body. I wanted to hold them close enough to convince myself that they’d never slip from my grasp, no matter what we faced.

I cupped his jaw and tugged his mouth to mine. He threw himself into the kiss, letting his tongue shift from human-like to its ridged dragon form, and yanked me right onto his lap. The bulge of his already rigid cock pressed against my ass through my shorts.

As he caressed my breasts with a growl that seemed directed at the metal beads that made it difficult for him to properly fondle me, Crag sank down next to us. The gargoyle kissed my shoulder with absolute tenderness.

There was a soft rustling sound as Torrent used his tentacles to help him cross the room. He looped one of those tentacles around my bare calf and paused. I drew back from Lance’s kiss to see he’d cast his gaze toward the fourth man in the room—the one who’d never been a part of an interlude like this with us before, other than watching unknown from a distance.

My gaze locked with Rollick’s. Desire had flared in his eyes, echoed in the pulse of emotion that flowed from him into me. But his posture had stiffened where he was perched on the sofa arm.

So many memories rushed through me: the horror of discovering how he’d violated our privacy back at his hotel, the pained apology he’d offered after he’d saved me from what would have been a deathly fall. The way he’d rushed to my aid at the sorcerers’ enclave, the moment in the park near my parents’ house when he’d offered me my life back. He’d always intrigued me as much as he’d unnerved me, and I no longer saw him as a villain. He’d maybe even become kind of heroic in the past several days.

Of course, he was also a high-level demon used to commanding authority and getting his way. He’d wanted to claim me, but I had a feeling he’d intended that to be only for himself, shunting my other men aside.

Now… now I had no idea what he’d accept. What would win in the potential battle between his desire and his ego.

But I wouldn’t get a chance to find out if he didn’t realize I wanted him too—fully aware of what I was doing, not the slightest bit intoxicated.

He stood up with an expression of careful composure and gave us a wry bob of his head. “I’ll leave you to it.”

“Wait,” I blurted out before he could disappear. As he paused, watching me with obvious uncertainty, I eased away from my other men. Not even Lance made a noise of protest as I walked over to the demon.

They’daccepted him. They believed he was with us in every way that counted, that he posed no threat to my body or my heart.

I stopped just a foot away from Rollick, starkly aware of the heat wafting off his body and the tangled emotions seeping into me with it. His hunger stirred more of my own.

“We’re all together in this mess, aren’t we?” I said quietly. “What if you were with us for the good parts as well? Can you handle that?”

More passion flared in Rollick’s eyes. He glanced at the other men and then back at me. “What do you want from me, Quinn?” he asked, his voice so raw it sent a tremor right down the center of me.

My throat constricted. I stepped even closer, reaching to slip one hand around his neck. “I want you. But only if it doesn’t have to be just you and no one else. Only if you can accept that I’m always going to want them too. And until I’m sure of that, they’re going to come first.”

A husky quality wound through his next words. “I suppose that’s reasonable, if you’re going to insist on laying down rules, sweet sorcerer.”

He inclined his head, and I bobbed up on my toes to meet his kiss. More heat flooded me from the joining of our mouths, searing all through the rest of my body.

The demon did know how to kiss. His lips melded with mine at the perfect angle to set my nerves tingling alongside the surge of heat. I found myself pulling him closer as if I could absorb even more pleasure from the moment that way. He set his hands on my waist, his thumbs arching under my shirt to skim across the bare skin, an encouraging noise resonating from his throat. The quiver I caught of his own delight and something almost like contentment sparked more bliss inside me in turn.

We were really doing this, after weeks of teasing and resisting. But nothing about this moment felt like a mistake. The fire of his kiss burned away any final traces of doubt.

He wanted me. Not as a trophy or a tool or to prove a point, but because of the same hunger that was reverberating down to my core right now. He might have been claiming me with his kiss, but I’d claimed a part of him just as much. Somehow in the past several days, our hopes and desires had become intertwined far beyond the point of any scheming or strategy.

With a little growl, Lance came up behind me. He rested his hand on my hip beneath Rollick’s fingers and nibbled the curve of my shoulder. “Mine,” he murmured against my skin, as if reminding me that he’d been the one who’d started us on this path.

Rollick’s grasp on my waist tightened momentarily as I pulled away from our kiss, but he relaxed enough to let me turn and yank the dragon shifter to me next. The demon’s hands teased up under my vest and the thin cotton undershirt that kept it off my skin until they cupped my breasts through my bra. My breath caught, and I kissed Lance harder, swaying between the two of them.

Lance had been ready for more since the moment he’d pulled me onto his lap. He hooked his claws over the waist of my shorts and dragged them down my legs, catching my panties along the way. As he kissed me again, his tongue sweeping through my mouth, he tucked his hand between us and grazed the tips of his claws over my pussy. When they glided across my clit, I whimpered into his mouth.

The dragon shifter blinked away so swiftly I barely felt his disappearance other than a current of air before he was standing before me again—buck naked. He grasped my hand and tugged me down with him onto the thick rug, a sly grin stretching across his face. “Everyone can join in with this position. I want to see how you take all of us at once, baby girl. Are you ready for that?”

A thrill shot through me. I looked up, catching the other men’s gazes. “Whenever you are.”

Lance cocked his head toward Torrent. “I don’t think we should unleash the gargoyle’s equipment on places we still need to be careful with, hmm? Do you still have that slick stuff to make her really ready?”

Torrent wet his lips, the hunger in his eyes searing over me. “Just a second.”

He wavered away too, and then returned seconds later with the tube from Rollick’s guest bedroom clutched in his deformed hand. As the tentacled man knelt behind me, Rollick let out a low chuckle. “So glad you made such excellent use of my hospitality.”

I reached one hand toward him and then the other toward Crag, beckoning them down around me on either side. Crag came at once and Rollick more warily, and then I was surrounded in a complete circle of heated desire.

All at once, I felt weirdly shy. I touched Lance’s cheek and drew him into a kiss that started out chaste but turned passionate as our mouths lingered together. Torrent stroked his hand up and down my back, not reaching to any more sensitive areas yet. As one of his tentacles looped around my waist to press its suckered kisses against my belly, Crag followed Rollick’s example and slipped his broad hand under my shirts to fondle one breast.

For a moment, Rollick just watched. Then I felt the press of his lips against my shoulder. “I look forward to times in the future when I’ll hopefully get to see you in all your glory,” he said, and eased his hand up my chest to work over my other breast in tandem with Crag.

The rush of pleasure through my body had me arching against the man I was perched on. My sex brushed against Lance’s cock, and he let out an eager growl.

“Mine,” he murmured again, rubbing his shaft over the wetness that’d collected between my folds and then sliding right up inside me.

I sighed as he filled me, that fantastic burn searing away any lingering doubts about whether we could make this group collision work. Grasping Crag’s shirt, I pulled him into a kiss next, my lips shifting against his as I rocked with Lance’s leisurely thrusts. “Clothes off,” I ordered him.

Behind me, Torrent’s hand dipped to my ass. As he delved lube-slick fingers between my cheeks, the tip of his embracing tentacle dropped to squeeze my clit. I gasped and found myself glancing at Rollick again.

So much passion lit his face now that flames seemed to dance in his eyes. “Fill her up,” he murmured with a hint of command in his tone. “Let’s see our mortal fully satisfied.” He pinched my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, and I tipped my head back with a moan. Then I reached for him to claim another demonic kiss.

His mouth scorched mine as Torrent warmed up my back entrance. When the kiss broke, the tentacled man brushed his lips against the back of my neck and asked, “Are you ready for me?”

The pulsing of his fingers inside me already had me trembling for release. “Yes,” I mumbled. “Please.”

Lance tipped me forward against him to provide the other man with a better angle, and Torrent lined himself up. The feel of his solid cock sliding into me from behind was totally different from the flexible thrust of his tentacle, but even more giddying in its own way. A ragged moan spilled out of me as I found myself speared by two of my lovers, friction sending its heady bliss through my nerves from both sides.

Torrent matched Lance’s relaxed pace as they warmed me up even more together. I kept just enough awareness beyond the surging sensations to motion for Crag to push more upright. The gargoyle had shed his clothes as I’d asked, and even in his human-like form, his cock jutted massively from between his thighs.

I knew I couldn’t take it all into my mouth, but I was going to give it my best shot. I stroked my fingers over the silkily firm length and closed my lips around the head.

Crag groaned and swayed to meet my embrace. I sucked hard as my hand worked the rest of his shaft up and down, and his thick fingers tangled in my hair as if he needed to hold on to me through his own careening path toward release.

Lance leaned in to flick his tongue along my jaw. “Not quite all of us yet, baby girl. Can you handle four?”

Hell, yes, I could. With Lance and Torrent holding me balanced between them, I raised my other hand toward Rollick and curled my fingers into his shirt before trailing them down his chest. The demon edged closer, slipping his hand over mine and guiding it lower. When my palm came to rest on the bulge behind his slacks, a rough rumble emanated from his chest.

“Let’s stick with one to start,” he said in an equally rough voice. For just an instant, the impression of his body vanished. Then he was there again, no layers of fabric between us.

I teased my fingertips over the single taut shaft he sported in human-like form and then gripped it firmly. Rollick kept fondling my breast as I pumped him with a rhythm in time with the other men’s movements.

“Let go,” he murmured. “Give yourself over to the pleasure, and bring all of us with you.”

As if on cue, Lance began to thrust faster, deeper. As Torrent matched his pace, the bliss sweeping through me tossed me even higher. I swirled my tongue around the head of Crag’s cock, stroking both him and Rollick faster in turn. We’d all gathered together to form a tidal wave of delight that I couldn’t have reined in now even if I’d wanted to.

Torrent seemed determined to make sure I came first. His sucker strummed at my clit as he bucked into me. I moaned onto Crag’s shaft with a shudder of ecstasy. Then the pleasure building inside me exploded, crackling through me and whiting out my vision.

It blazed on and on as Torrent followed me with a choked sound and a squeeze of his arm around my torso. Crag grunted with the tightening of my lips, and the salty gush of his release spilled over my tongue. Lance chuckled breathlessly and pounded into me with even more force, and I shattered apart again right on the heels of my first orgasm.

My hand jerked faster around Rollick’s cock. He wrapped his fingers around mine to clench them even harder and came with a muttered curse. Then the dragon shifter followed the rest of us, liquid heat spurting inside me.

Lance yanked my face away from Crag’s and scraped his fangs over my neck. The pain added one final spark of bliss to my release before he healed it with a waft of fiery breath.

My head bowed forward, my body going slack. Rollick brushed my sweat-damp hair back from my temple and grinned fiercely. “That’s our woman.”

As the last quivers of ecstasy seeped out of me, resolve formed in my chest. I was theirs, in every possible way, as much as they were mine. And since I hadn’t been able to protect them by pushing them away from me, I’d just have to hold them as close as I could—and put up every possible fight to defend the love I’d found with them.