Chapter 8
Eight
Nero
“I need you to keep the club closed tonight,” Constantine said.
I sat back in my chair, phone to my ear. “Why?”
He sighed. “My bonded is…lonely.”
“And how will keeping my club closed cure that?”
“Our females, they’ve been alone, locked away from society since we claimed them, Nero. They need companionship. Rather than them seeking that from”—he growled low—“outside sources, I think that making friends with one another will at least be safe.”
I gripped my phone tighter. Dining with her, taking her to my bed and holding her, answering her questions about my past, about Dorotha, whom I hadn’t spoken about in longer than I could remember, hadn’t worked. Maybe letting her spend time with my brothers’ females would give her the sense of freedom she craved? I needed her where she was, where I knew she was safe from my enemies, but I couldn’t fucking tolerate being barred from her room any longer. That separation from her only made the predator in me thirst for her even more violently.
I’d stood paralyzed outside her bedroom last night. I was a male who did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Mina was mine, and if I wanted to go into her room, I could.
But I hadn’t.
I hadn’t done it because this turmoil inside me that she was responsible for was pushing me closer to the edge with each passing day, and sleeping beside her, in my bed, but still being denied all of her, had only made the wildfire inside me burn hotter.
I’d liked it, being that close to her.
She’d maintained steadfast in her resolve, though, while I’d burned for her.
I needed unrestricted access to her. I needed her compliant. That was the only way to stay in control.
What Constantine said made sense. Our females had been deprived of companionship for years, and for young females, I assumed that was difficult. A gathering like that would at least be safe, the club was secure, and we’d be there to make sure they were protected.
And maybe allowing her to meet with the other females, to form a friendship of some kind would please her and make her more biddable?
“Fine,” I said to Constantine. “The Bank will stay closed tonight.”
“I’ll see you this evening, then,” Constantine said and disconnected.
The upper-level club would be best. The Vault would need to remain open. I had customers that relied on it to feed. Thankfully, there were two entrances to The Vault, one in the upper level at the back of The Bank’s main room that was manned at all times, and also an exterior door behind the main building.
“Have Monty redirect our clients to The Vault’s back entrance tonight,” I said to Pretender when he walked in. “The Bank will be closed.”
My ward raised a brow but dipped his chin and left to do as I said.
I strode from my office and down the private stairs to the lower level. That heavy feeling in my chest grew with every step I took. My skin felt tight, and I clenched and unclenched my fingers as my nerve endings felt as if they were sparking from the tips. The sensation wasn’t pain. The pain was there, but this was something else, something even more threatening.
I had to be careful I didn’t get lost to the sensations this female was causing in me.
You’re already lost.
I ignored the voice in my head, refusing to believe it.
The reason I hadn’t fucked her, hadn’t mated her in that room when I finally got her to drink from me again, or when I held her in my bed the previous night, had finally become clear. It’d taken longer than it should to recognize, but now I could name the new feeling rapidly growing inside me and the weakness it had already caused.
Mina made me vulnerable in a way that was unacceptable. Dangerous.
Still, I couldn’t stay away from her, and when I lifted my fist and knocked, I had to shake out my hand when I noticed how my fingers actually fucking trembled.
I heard her moving on the other side of the door, then she stopped and there was nothing but silence.
“Who is it?” she finally called.
She knew exactly who it was. She’d feel me this close the same way I did her, only she wouldn’t feel the mind-numbing pain that came with it and the need to fuck like a rutting animal. “Nero.”
More silence.
I waited for her to open the door, giving her what she asked for in the hopes that she would believe she had some power in this situation, and give in to my demands.
“You may enter,” she finally said, this time closer to the door.
Unlocking it, I walked in. Mina was in another of her pink dresses. All were long, covering her body, but the way they hugged her breasts and waist was more than tempting enough.
“What do you want?” she asked, her spine straight, even as each exhale shook from the nervous energy I felt pouring off her.
There were things I needed from Mina, and I was beginning to realize that the only way to get them was to give her a sense of control. “I’ve thought about what you said, and I’d like to meet you halfway.”
She looked surprised, then lifted her chin. “I’m listening.”
“I am very old, Mina, and the nature of what I am means I stopped considering the feelings of others long ago. Why would I when I hadn’t possessed them myself?”
I could tell her what I am, what I’d done, why I’d become the male I was, but I was trying to make this female trust me. Knowing that I was The Five’s assassin, that the number of beings I’d killed in cold blood were in the thousands, that torture was a specialty of mine that I enjoyed very much, or the torture I’d suffered myself, would not help my cause.
She licked her lips, her eyes widening in anticipation.
“I have arranged a gathering tonight.” An embellishment. It was all Constantine’s idea, but taking credit could only help my cause. “My brothers are bringing their females to my club so you can…make friends.”
“Friends.” She drew in a sharp breath. “I can leave this room?”
“Yes.”
Her entire face lit up, and somehow my beguiling bride looked even more stunning than she had before. “What kind of club? My mother attends a book club every Tuesday with her friends. Is it a book club?”
Her question took me aback. Her naivety made my chest ache for some reason. “No, in this instance it’s a place where people come to dance and drink.”
“And you have one?”
“I have two.”
“And you’ll show them to me?”
She was almost bouncing on the spot with excitement.
“One of them, yes.”
“And will it be full of people?”
“I’m closing it, so it’ll just be us—my brothers and their females.”
Her smile didn’t falter. “Thank you, Nero.”
I inclined my head. “Be ready at nine,” I said and left, because the urge to throw her on her bed, toss her long dress up, and fuck her into the mattress, then hold her like I had in my room, in my bed, was a creature all of its own. Being kept from her had fully awakened it, and that unguarded look of delight on her face, only teased it further.
Mina wasn’t safe with me right then.
I needed to leave. I’d had my fix, measly as it was. I’d stood in the same room as her, breathed in her scent, heard her voice, and basked in her smile. That had to be enough. Any more right now was far too dangerous. So I turned and left before my control slipped completely.
Hopefully, after tonight, she’d stop fighting me, and let me back into her room. Only a small amount of time every day in her presence would help me regain and maintain that control.
If she didn’t?
Gods help us both.
She was my drug and only a steady supply of my bride would stop me from snapping and glutting on her like the starved monster I was becoming.
Mina
My nerves skyrocketed when the knock at the door came, but it only took a split second to realize it wasn’t Nero this time.
I strode over and opened the door.
Pretender stood there and his head jerked back the moment he laid eyes on me, then he laughed, the sound low and rough.
I looked down at myself, then back up. “Why are you laughing? Do I look stupid?” Pretender was a male of few words, but he’d never been unkind to me.
“Definitely don’t look stupid, Mina. You look…really fucking good. Not sure Nero will be happy, though.”
“Why?” Though I thought I knew the answer.
“You’re showing a lot more skin than usual. If I’d known you’d use those scissors for this and not arts and crafts , I might not have brought them to you.”
I chose the least offensive pink dress I had, then cut off the sleeves and taken up the length so it sat just above the knee. Pretender had shown me pictures on his phone earlier of the club when it was full of people. I’d been curious, and I’d been surprised when he had complied. What had stood out to me, though, was the way the females dressed. They weren’t covered up like I’d always been made to. I didn’t want to look silly in front of the other females, so I’d worked with what I had. “Might?”
He shrugged and chuckled again. “I kind of want to see Nero’s reaction.”
The male had a really nice laugh. “Where is he?”
“He’s welcoming his guests and asked me to take you upstairs.”
Pretender motioned to the door and took a step back, as always careful not to touch me in any way.
“This way,” he said, leading me along the hall.
“What’s through there?” I asked as we passed another door, one Nero hadn’t opened the other night.
“Best you ask Nero that.”
“Is that his other club?” It had to be. I could hear music, like the music I heard the nights Nero had come to my room.
Pretender glanced my way, well, I assumed he had. He always wore his hood pulled low, concealing most of his face and casting it in shadow. “He told you about The Vault?”
I nodded, kind of lying. He’d said there was another club, just nothing else. “Yes.”
We went through a door at the end of the hall and up a steep staircase. At the top, we entered an office. It was Nero’s. I knew because it smelled like him. There was a large desk and a huge window on one wall. It was mostly dark beyond it, but I could also see colored lights.
As soon as Pretender opened the door on the opposite side, the sound of music reached me, but it was different than the music I’d heard coming from the other door, the club Pretender called The Vault. Excitement filled me as we took another set of stairs, this time heading down.
I grabbed Pretender’s sleeve, excited, and he jerked away like I’d struck him.
I quickly pulled my hand back. “Sorry.”
“Fuck,” he muttered and quickly yanked off his hooded sweatshirt, tossing it on the floor.
“What are you doing?” He looked up, and I gasped. He was…beautiful. Though that word didn’t seem enough. I’d never seen a being that utterly beautiful in my life. So impossibly handsome that he didn’t seem real.
He ignored my reaction to seeing his face properly for the first time. “If Nero scents you on me, he’ll kill me.”
He said it without fear but with utter certainty. “He wouldn’t do that.”
Pretender grinned and it was heart-stopping. “You’re his bonded, Mina.” That was all he said, as if that explained everything.
Then he opened the door and motioned me through. I stopped in my tracks when I saw Nero and his brothers across the room. “What if they don’t like me?”
“They will.”
“But what if they don’t?” I didn’t hear Pretender’s reply because Nero had stopped talking to the massive vampires with him and had turned my way. I couldn’t read his expression as that violet gaze sliced down my body to my bare legs and back up, lingering on my arms before coming to my mouth.
On shaky legs, my belly in knots, I started toward him. I’d almost reached him when his lips peeled back and he flashed his fangs. My step faltered.
Was he angry?
He strode forward, his fingers curling around my wrist. “What are you wearing, Lalka?”
I blinked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“You have taken a pair of scissors to your dress.”
“I know.”
He bared his teeth again. “If we weren’t in this room with males I trust, I would drag you back to your room, put you over my knee, and spank you before I made you change into something else.”
Anger flashed through me, taking me by surprise. “You are not my father, Nero. You are my mate, or you’re supposed to be. I am a grown female, not a child to be punished. What I wear is my choice despite your attempts to control that as well. Get used to seeing me like this because I will not dress like a child…or a… a doll any longer, and if that means chopping up every gown in my closet, I will.”
He leaned in, his mouth brushing my ear. “No one has ever gotten away with speaking to me the way you do, Mina, and I’ve decided, that neither will you.”
I tilted my head back. “What are you going to do?”
His gaze moved over mine and he grinned, one of his emotionless grins—no, not totally emotionless this time because his eyes shone bright.
“Mina!” A chorus of voices reached me over the music.
I turned and four females, the same females I’d seen briefly at the blood moon ceremony, stood across the room and were waving me over. I spun back to Nero.
His nostrils flared, and I knew he was scenting me. “Go meet your new friends,” he said, then released me.
Fighting back the nerves, I strode over to them. I was scared, shy, but I would not waste this opportunity.
They instantly surrounded me.
“I’ve been so desperate to meet you,” one of them said. “Are you okay? Is Nero being kind to you?”
This female, whoever she was, was the first person to ask me that since the ceremony, and without my say-so, tears filled my eyes.
They gathered around me more tightly, comforting me without question, offering kindness. I hadn’t realized the toll this whole thing had taken on me until this moment. I’d been in survival mode since I got here, and it felt like this was the first breath I’d taken.
Another female took my hand and they kept me hidden, forming a shield as they ushered me over to a booth on the other side of the club.
“Talk to us,” another of them said.
“Whatever you’re going through, we’ll understand,” a small female with soft features and vibrant lilac eyes said.
I didn’t even know their names, but I felt a kinship with them instantly and blurted it all out. About the bedroom that was a replica of the one I’d had in my parents’ home, about the pink dresses and the midnight visits and tricking me into feeding from him by using my own instincts against me, then thinking he could win me over with a meal out of my room. When I was finished, none of them seemed remotely shocked.
A female with fiery red hair and a dusting of freckles took my hand. “I know this whole thing is…weird and confusing. I know they’re”—she tilted her head toward our bonded males—“weird and confusing, but they’re not like other males, and even if we hadn’t been locked in our houses for years and shut off from the world, this would still be just as hard.” She smiled kindly. “I’m Lucinda, by the way. That’s Effie, Delphine, and Ana.”
Ana smiled as well. “They’re warriors and incredibly old and have very little in the way of emotion, if any. I’m not giving them a pass for the way they’re behaving, but as terrifying as they seem, or had seemed to us, I get the feeling we’re just as terrifying to them.”
“Once you mate, they don’t seem so terrifying anymore,” Lucinda said, her cheeks pink.
“You’re mated?”
She nodded. “Last night.”
“How was it?” Effie asked, eyes wide.
She chewed her lip, then grinned. “Really, really good. Amazing, actually. I don’t know…things feel different between us now. I know it’s scary, and I know you want to strangle them…or bash them over the head with something, but I promise it gets better.”
A laugh burst from me. “I would have stabbed Nero if I’d had the chance.”
Ana nodded. “They’re so intense, and the arrogance is unmatched.” Her expression changed. “Ana,” she said in a low voice, while she narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin, in imitation of her bonded’s voice, “if you don’t stop flouncing around in front of me in those fucking shorts, I’ll fucking burn them.” Her voice was mocking and deep, then she pulled a face, one that I assumed was supposed to be intimidating and arrogant.
We all burst out laughing.
The males turned our way, their eyes narrowed in the same way Ana’s had just done, and everyone laughed again, harder.
The music changed, and Delphine grabbed on to my and Effie’s hands. “Should we dance?”
Lucinda nodded. “I think we should. Who knows when we’ll get this chance again?”
We laughed, giddy as we ran out to the dance floor. None of us knew what we were doing. The only dancing we’d done was in the privacy of our rooms, and some of us probably not even then, but that didn’t matter. For the first time in five years, I felt free.
Maybe it was only an illusion, and it would all end when the night did.
But I planned to make the most of every minute.