15. Aurelia
Hot, sweet, delectable blood filled my mouth. It was even more delicious now that she was this aroused.
There’s something about blood and sex. Venom intrinsically tied the two, but I never let myself be as much of a glutton as I had with her. Her fingers were still inside me, pumping as if I hadn’t come as I sliced open her neck with my fangs.
She moaned against me as the venom took hold of her. Since our fight, I could smell her in the room. I could smell the arousal pooling between her legs. All I wanted was to taste it. Fuck, bathe in it. More than I wanted to bathe in the blood of my enemies. More than I wanted revenge.
My entire mind was filled with only her.
I had never been one of those vampires who took to draining their blood bags so they could lounge in a pool of their blood…but if all blood was like hers? I don’t know if I could help myself. She might just be the one to turn me into one of those crazed rogues.
She was annoying, stuck up, and never acted the way a normal human should, but it just made her all that more addictive.
What else would the little mouse show me? The curiosity itself had the ability to send me into an obsessive spiral.
I should’ve been furious that she tried to kill me. But from the moment I saw her, I knew the little mouse had something up her sleeve. I just couldn’t quite place it. Couldn’t understand why she stuck to me like she had without trying something like the other guards. Why her eyes never left me.
A part of me was so excited for this outcome. To finally be on par with someone. To be able to fight and talk back. To be around someone who didn’t want me as a status symbol.
Sure, the other part of me was pissed that she had gotten so close to wounding me. Offended. But the excitement outweighed all of that. I didn’t care how annoying she was or how she had literally almost brought down an entire vampire family.
All I cared about was making the little mouse eat her words. She was right—whatever happened between us wouldn’t mean anything, but she decided to start this back at the club, and I was going to finish it.
Her pants were buckled tightly, but I made quick work of them before pushing my hands inside and between her legs.
I pulled away from her neck, licking the wounds her blood still dripped from. She hadn’t given up. Even as I forced my hand between us, she had moved from pumping to the sort of rocking motion that caused my eyes to roll into the back of my head.
“Seems I’m not the only one who came here looking to get fucked,” I said as I teased her clit before running my fingers down to her entrance. Wet. She was completely and utterly drenched, and she sure as hell wouldn’t be able to blame it on my venom.
She wants me, just as much as I want her.
“I didn’t say you could touch me,” she spat.
“Then tell me to stop,” I told her, my eyes meeting hers. Her face was adorably flushed. Her eyes still held the hatred, but they were clouded by lust. “Tell me that you don’t wish that I was between your legs right now—” I said, slowly pushing two teasing fingers inside her. “Lapping up your cunt, letting you ride my face as you try so desperately to pretend that you aren’t enjoying yourself.”
She cursed under her breath and averted her gaze.
“Nuh-uh,” I whispered and used my free hand to force her to look at me as I continued to pump slowly into her pussy. “You’re gonna look at me as I make you come.”
Rage flashed through her eyes, pulling a laugh from my lips.
“Tell me to stop, little mouse,” I purred and copied the same rocking motion she had used on me. I jerked my hips against her hand, reminding her that I wasn’t quite done yet.
I wanted more, and I wouldn’t be satisfied for a long while. Not while she still looked at me with such anger.
“I fucking hate you and your whole kind,” she growled.
“Say it again,” I murmured, leaning down to run my tongue across her lips. Her slow-but-steady movements were causing heat to run through me. It wasn’t rushed like the orgasm that was pulled from me earlier—instead, we were watching each other’s faces, seeing exactly who would be the first to lose this little bet we had. “All while you come for the spoiled little princess you seem to hate so much.”
The venom had done its job prepping her to come. Her cunt pulsed around me. Her reluctant moans filled the air. She tried to hide them, but I only curled my fingers inside her and forced them to come out.
She bucked against me, trying wildly to get me to stop. As if she could somehow still get away from admitting her defeat. But she was too close. The orgasm had already worked its course, our fighting being all the foreplay she needed.
Then, she threw her head back, her mouth open and her body freezing as her orgasm finally ripped through her.
It was beautiful, uncontrolled, chaotic. Her harsh moans sounded more like sobs as it moved through her. Over and over again, the orgasm was assisted by vampire venom and forced her body into a pleasure I doubt she’d ever known before.
I want to see more of it.
I wanted to see her try to fight it. Adamantly try to stay in control. All while we both knew that the orgasm would come eventually.
What a fun game. The most fun I’d played in a decade.
“Taste yourself, human,” I ordered and forced my wet fingers into her mouth. “Doesn’t taste so much like hate, does it?”
Her teeth bit down on my fingers, and just as I was about to pull away, her thumb started with those intoxicating hard circles on my clit again.
“What are you?—”
“Shut up and take it,” she growled around my fingers. “Fair is fair, and I won’t have you complaining about my bedroom skills because you decided to cheat.”
I was left shocked by the little mouse, but she was right. Fair was fair, and if that meant getting an orgasm from her, I wouldn’t complain.
Our heaving breaths filled the silent room as we lay side by side, not bothering to fix our shredded clothes.
The ceiling was in perfect condition, but I knew as soon as my eyes wandered around the room, I would be met with destruction. There were more orgasms. Again and again until we were too tired to go on.
Fairwas an excuse—the reality was that both of us wanted to one-up the other.
“You’re not gonna kill me?” she asked, her voice breaking through the post-sex haze.
Kill her? I scoffed aloud. I should’ve killed her hours ago. I should’ve killed her when she forced me to drink her blood when all I had wanted that day was for the poison magic to kill me.
No. There would be no killing.
“You’re much too interesting for that,” I admitted. I turned to look at her, taking in her still-flushed face. At some point during our fucking, I had sliced her shirt open, and now her entire chest lay open and bare to me, her nipples swollen and red. They were tempting me again.
“That doesn’t change what I need to do,” she said.
I turned over on my side, propping my head on my hand, and sent her a smirk.
“Tell me who sent you,” I requested. “I can double whatever they pay.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This was never about the money.”
Her words struck me as odd. If it isn’t about the money, then what is it about?
Sure, my father had made a bunch of enemies during his existence, but I hadn’t. I was well-known among the various royal families, and I stayed in my lane. I attended one too many blackmail parties, but they had information on me too, so there was no reason to send an assassin after me…
So, who did I offend to have them go to such great lengths?
It was unnerving to have such a calm conversation with her after everything. To look into her eyes and realize that, no matter what, she would still gladly put a blade in my heart.
I was bargaining for my life. As much as I tried not to let the panic show on my face, there was a sort of fear that gripped my throat.
“What else can I offer you?” I asked. “The prince’s head on a stick?”
She let out a laugh and shook her head.
“He holds no value to me. If anything, that would help you more than it would me.”
I thought for a moment. She wanted blood. Royal blood. Though I didn’t fault her for not wanting the prince. He was all but useless. Even his family name at this point had been destroyed by his actions. My father’s motives for selling me were still unknown, so the prince would not be a bargaining chip, but…
An idea popped into my head. I had been so overtaken by her attempt to kill me that what my father had done had fallen into the recesses of my mind.
I can use her. She didn’t know about my hatred for him, so to her, my offer would look too irresistible to pass up.
“Then my father, and in return, you’re my personal feeder. I’m not talking about light work. We’ve been doing that with you as my guard. I want you here every night with me.”
Her eyes widened, and at first, I thought she would grab her dagger and plunge it into my heart right then and there, but instead, she surprised me.
She laughed. Uncontrolled, pure amusement.
It caused anger to boil underneath my skin. Does she think I’m just some sort of fucking joke?
“I’m serious,” I hissed and leaned closer to her. She wasn’t at all intimidated.
“I’m sure you are, princess,” she said through her chuckles and pushed herself into a seated position.
I shot my hand out, grabbing at her ripped shirt and forcing her face close to mine. I bared my teeth at her, hoping that her blood was still staining them. But instead of gawking in fear, she merely smirked at my actions.
“There is no one in a better position than me to get you the king’s head,” I said. “Why would you stop at a princess who’s about to be married off? I am of no use to you. I cannot control anything. I do not have any power. I will never have any power, but I can give you the keys to toppling this family.”
Her smirk faltered for just a second.
“And how am I to believe that you hate your family so much you would allow me to kill the only one of your parents still left alive?” she asked. Her words were hurtful, her tone even more so. I pushed her away.
“Then you haven’t been paying much attention,” I hissed and stood up, trying to straighten my clothes. She did the same, trying to cover as much of her skin as she could with the scraps she had.
I almost offered her a shirt, but that would be going too low, even for me. She was a guard. One who tried to kill me and insulted me.
It was embarrassing. I had let myself fuck my assassin-to-be and then concocted this crazy plan in hopes of saving myself…How low was I willing to go?
That familiar sense of shame was playing on my senses.
Maybe it was the years I’d been locked in that cage I kept hidden in the back of my mind. The years of having to obey my father as he continued to look down on me. The last-ditch effort at trying to avoid becoming a Solei plaything. Maybe it was the heat I had seen in my stepmother’s eyes that was finally pushing me to do something as insane as trusting her.
But nonetheless, it was more of a plea than a bargain. And for her to deny it so abruptly…it hurt.
“Get out before I’m summoned,” I ordered. “If anyone asks, just tell them that I requested you.”
“Worried about me, princess?” she asked as she walked toward the far wall, where her short sword was sticking out. She grabbed it by the handle and pulled it out, looking it over and nodding with satisfaction when she realized there was no damage to it.
“Well, you have proven interesting,” I said with a shrug. “Even if you’re a coward. At least we’ll have a bit of fun until you can sneak back up here again.”
Her jaw clenched, the sound of her teeth grinding together hitting my ears. She then let out a huff before bending down and grabbing the dagger as she made her way toward the door. She didn’t pause until her hand was on the crystal doorknob.
“Next time, it won’t end like this,” she vowed.
“I’ll be waiting,” I said, trying to muster as much of that fake confidence as I could.
I hated her. I wanted to hate her for the hurt she caused. She had a job to do and probably wasn’t reading into everything that went on with the family. But I had run out of options.
And she’d taken the last sliver of hope I had left.