Chapter 9 #2
His slick cock and tongue could only distract me so much from what was actually an upsetting situation though. I was an only child, so this many people suddenly filing into someone’s bedroom made no sense at all to me.
“Believe me,” Vergis purred, “if I want to upset anyone, it’d be obvious, and your new mate there is fine. If he can finally move his ass downstairs so I can run a magical experiment on him to see if he’s worse than a fucking A-bomb or not, I think that would be in everyone’s best interest.”
That wiped all thoughts of, well, anything else clear off my mind. I scrambled out of Inkiri’s arms and pulled my T-shirt out of my rumpled sweater, pulled it on, then followed Vergis past a gaping Nokim and a curiously staring Lissir.
“Wait, what do you mean?” I hollered as soon as I was on the stairs, but even in those few seconds, Vergis had vanished from view. I couldn’t even hear him anymore, despite the metal staircase.
I made it downstairs in record time and headed toward the living room. There was no trace of Vergis.
“Hey!” I only found Fellisse sitting on the floor in the living room and sipping something from a steaming bowl.
“There, that wasn’t so hard.”
I nearly jumped when Vergis’s voice moved the air right by my ear.
Inkiri and the other two joined the fun as well, and Nokim started excitedly talking to Fellisse in their language. He also pointed at me. My nipples were back on the list of conversation topics, I knew that, even if I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying.
I didn’t have time to be upset about it. Vergis pushed a clear glass jar into my hand, and I took it on reflex.
“Here, hold on to this.”
I looked at the jar and nearly dropped it. “Ugh. Worms and spiders? What is this?”
“It’s an experiment, dumbass. I just told you.” He put his palms on the sides of my neck.
That drew an immediate hissing growl from Inkiri, who stepped so close so fast that I nearly jumped again.
“I warn you, Vergis,” Inkiri said.
“I’m doing magic, not marking him, so keep it in your pants. And don’t touch him either, or I won’t be responsible for what the magic takes.”
That appeased Inkiri somewhat, and he actually stepped back. I wasn’t sure what to make of magic, how this constituted magic, or what was supposed to happen here. Nothing did.
Vergis released me. “Huh. Okay. Second theory.”
He pulled the long knife from its sheath, and my eyes went wide. This wasn’t like a prop at a movie set. It was the real thing. It could cut you, hurt you, and it scared me.
I took a step back, right into Inkiri, and pointed. “You’re not getting near me with that.”
Vergis rolled his eyes. “It’s a conduit for magic.” He flipped the blade so fast I couldn’t follow the movement and held the handle out to me. “I just want you to hold it and wish for something, but something small. Hmm. Wish for Fellisse’s tea to go cold.”
“It’s café au lait,” the big monster said.
Vergis grunted. “Hold the knife and wish his damn café au lait cold. Go on. I don’t have all day.”
I stared at the handle. “The last time I made a wish, it really didn’t go so well.”
Vergis rolled his eyes. “You’re wishing for cold coffee. It’s going to be fine. And we need to find out whether this is actually real or if you imagined it. That’s theory number three, by the way. That something’s broken in that head of yours.”
I bit my lip. “I didn’t imagine it. And I’m not… I’m fine. My head is fine.”
“So take the damn knife and wish his coffee cold.”
“Café au lait,” Fellisse mumbled.
My throat was dry, and I felt lightheaded. Dangerously lightheaded. Scared. The jar in my hand was heavy, and even the clicking coming from Inkiri couldn’t soothe me, especially not when he stepped back the moment I touched the knife.
Vergis didn’t let go of the blade, and I wasn’t going to grab it and hurt him, so I just put my fingers around the handle and tried not to shake like fall leaves in a strong breeze.
“I wish Fellisse’s café au lait goes cold.” I didn’t know if I had to say it out loud, but that was what I’d done at the Stone.
I felt something as soon as the words were out of my mouth. It was only a moment, a flash of heat going through me, and it immediately rang with familiarity. Two years ago, at the Stone of Destiny, I’d felt this, only back then, I’d chalked it up to, well, the world going to shit.
But apparently, it had been some kind of magic.
Opposite me, Vergis smiled. He raised his free hand, and when he wiggled his fingers, purple and teal sparks played around the digits. It was pretty.
“Oh.” I let go of the knife. The sparks fizzled out and died.
Fellisse grunted, and I turned to look at him.
“Nokim, I will need that microwave thing of yours to warm this back up,” he said.
Nokim rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet excitedly.
“Does this mean Inki’s mate can do magic?
I’ll heat everyone’s beverages in the microwave to celebrate!
If you want, you can come and watch yours turn in a circle.
” He looked at me. “I collected teas and various coffee brands. What’s your poison, Rory? ”
“Coffee. With honey and plant milk, if you have that.” Well, I’d only just done magic apparently, and I was feeling fancy. I also wasn’t a virgin anymore, so I was double fancy. I deserved a fancy coffee order.
Nokim nodded and was off. Inkiri pressed close to my side and once more licked my neck. “I don’t even smell it on him.”
Vergis shrugged and sheathed his knife. “He’s a conduit. Albeit an active conduit. He can’t really do any magic by himself, that’s why you can’t smell it.”
I brushed a lock of hair off my forehead.
“Explain that. And take your jar of ugl—” When I lifted the jar of worms and spiders and who knew what else, I froze.
It was no longer full of wiggling creatures I didn’t want to look at up close.
A fine dusting of black ash was all that remained, and my mind immediately went back to Cat and Jacob and my memories of them. “Holy shit.”
Vergis tapped at the jar with a finger. “Yeah. Magic has a price. Nothing’s free. And whatever whoever used you for it did, your wish gave them access to a good many people to power their spell with.”
“I—so I didn’t kill anyone?”
I had to make sure. I wanted it to be true so badly. The guilt had been eating at me. It had lived and fed and grown in my heart, and grown even stronger for the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone about it.
Vergis shrugged rather than absolving me outright, his midnight dark horns gleaming. “You gave whoever is behind this access to a lot of sacrificial power. It’s possible they’d have taken every human they needed for their spell if your wish had been different. I can’t be sure.”
Inkiri drew me with him to the mattress pile.
The carpets had been covered with a large tablecloth, and I could see three more mugs sitting there beside the one Fellisse had been drinking from.
Tables were a no, then. That was a good thing.
I was pretty sure I’d lost most of my table manners over the past two years.
Inkiri sat on my right, while Lissir folded his legs under himself on my left. Inkiri got all touchy-feely and started clicking at me as soon as he put his arm around me. These clicks were about an octave below what I was used to by now.
“Used to” was relative, of course, since the blue guy trying to be my mate had only come into my life, sword flashing, yesterday. All we’d had, if you looked at the facts, was an awkward one-night stand.
Still, I found myself leaning against him. There was something undeniably comforting about knowing he was here with me. Stroking my back gently and giving me comfort in his own way.
I swallowed tightly. “Can we bring them back?”
I rolled the jar of fine black ash between my palms. I wasn’t sure why I even asked again. Maybe because now, I really believed in magic.
Vergis snorted. “No. I told you that.”
“But you said… I don’t understand half of what you said. If it was my wish, can’t I bring them back? Wish them back?”
He cocked his head. “No. Magic is uncompromising. And you wishing for anything won’t make a difference either way. They were never your sacrifices, and the spell was never yours. All you were was a gateway through which someone else got access to all that power.”
Lissir had been eyeing me and Inkiri all this time, but he looked up at that.
“Wait. When we first came here, we didn’t think we would find humans who could do magic.
But now what you’re saying is that someone from the human side used Rory to sacrifice all those humans.
You think they did it to meld the worlds. Is that it?”
Vergis crossed his arms. “Maybe. It’s a theory. We should go to the Hill of Tara, check out the Stone of Destiny.”
Lissir stood and rounded on Vergis. “I’ve been watching you for a while. You’re not speaking your thoughts, Vergis.”
“I do not want Rory to travel right now,” Inkiri said. “He’s so frail.” He followed that up by clicking at me; more a low rumble than the normal, soothing clicks.
Nokim came in with a tray of food and drinks and handed me what looked exactly like what I’d asked for.
I put the ash jar on the floor and took the mug he offered, then sipped.
I tasted honey and almond milk—something I hadn’t had in so long.
I didn’t want to give this up again, but I still felt guilty.
I held the mug in both hands, letting the warmth of it sink into my palms. “I survived monsters on my own out there, but…”
I stared at the coffee in my mug. It was always the little things that got you, the things you took for granted until they were ripped away from you.
What if I could wake up every morning and find coffee like this waiting for me?
And food too? What if I could sleep like I had slept last night, deeply and without waking from imagined sounds, minus Vergis bursting into the bedroom?
Inkiri looked at me. “Rory—"
“I think you’re right. I am frail. Maybe I shouldn’t travel.
” I turned cabbage red as I sold myself into domestic mate-dom, but why in the fuck wouldn’t I?
Inkiri was pretty chill for a horned monster, and if he didn’t start flipping his moods on a coin toss, this was actually going to be fine.
I could learn to be happy with him and his weird cock. His rough tongue wasn’t bad at all.
I suddenly felt determined, like back when I’d seen the cute cat socks and decided to go get them. Yes, I would let this monster ravish me and let his buddy make me coffee every morning after, and I would ignore how he and his friends didn’t understand human anatomy.
I was already looking forward to the ravishing.
As it turned out, I was a goddamn closeted pillow queen and former virgin, and I just had to be honest with myself about these things, embrace them.
I should maybe tell Inkiri as well since he was going to have to do all the heavy lifting.
Or deep thrusting. I wasn’t sure how that part was going to work out yet, but work it would.
I didn’t want to talk about magic ever again, I never wanted to see black ash from here on out, and I was going to swear to them all that I was way too frail to go back to the Stone of Destiny. I’d learn to faint on cue to drive the point home if that was what it took.
Yes, I would totally swipe right on a monster and use all my manly wiles on him to get my happily ever after.
I looked up at Inkiri. “Please don’t make me go?” I was maybe overacting, but they’d only ever cast me to be a fucking tree, so what did I know.
Inkiri pulled me closer and ran his tongue over the side of my throat before he said, “Of course not, Sadir. Nothing you don’t want.”
Being mated wasn’t so bad after all.