Chapter 21 Lazriel #2
“He’s more complicated than most people are aware. He wishes to keep his original reputation intact, though. It’s not my right to say more.”
“I’m actually surprised you gave me that much.”
“Well, I’m trying to be as open where this is concerned as you asked for.”
“And other things?”
“Other things like what?”
“I don’t know, but you strike me as a keeper of a whole lot of secrets.”
“That I am. I know a lot of… key figures… shall we say, and my dealings with such people involve discretion. That’s another matter to my sickness, though. And that’s not what you asked for transparency on.”
“Always with an answer for everything.”
He winked. “Oh, absolutely, wolfie.” His magic sparked, startling me from the suddenness of it. Then my wolf claw pendant appeared on his palm. “This was on the floor. I assume it fell out of your robe that Velra is wearing.”
“Yeah, I don’t wear it during Graverun fights. Don’t want it to get damaged.”
“I noticed.”
I smiled and took it from his palm. “Thanks,” I said, as I clasped it back around my neck.
“Any time.”
He walked to the other side of the kitchen and rummaged in one of the cupboards for a moment.
Then he was pulling out a bag full of his homemade jerky and tossing it to me. “Get started on that while I make something more substantial.”
“Make it? Is your magic still unstable, then?”
“No. I told you I’m well this morning, and I am. I woke up and injected another serum.”
“How many do you need per day?”
“Three now.”
“Now?”
He winced and turned to me, leaning against the countertop. “It used to be one, but my body has developed a resistance to it.”
“Fuck, Sylas.”
“It’s under control. It’s being worked on. And for the time being, the serum, despite me needing more, is still doing its job.”
“Except when you overexert yourself.”
“Yes.”
“Then you can’t. You can’t do that anymore. Your vigilante work… it could literally kill you.”
“I was foolish last night. I didn’t take a backup syringe with me. That’s all.”
“Sylas.”
“I can’t just stop. Things are required of me.
And to gather intel—a great deal about the cure Kai and I are trying to determine—payment is required.
Me doing jobs for people, jobs that only somebody of my magical caliber and specific skillset can do.
I’m in high demand, and that’s something I use to my advantage. ”
“That’s what you were doing last night?”
“Using it to my advantage, yes.”
“No. I mean, were you doing somebody a favor to acquire intel on this cure?”
“Last night’s job wasn’t about that. It concerned something else.”
“Like what?”
“Lazriel.”
“Yes, I know you have your secrets and you have people to protect because you clearly operate in the supernatural underground more than I even realized at first, but I can’t know what nearly killed you last night?”
“Not the specifics. Let’s just say that I owed somebody a favor and that’s what last night was about.”
I shoved my hands in the pockets of his robe he’d conjured on me. “Fine,” I muttered.
He gritted his teeth. “I hate it when you say that. Because it means you’re the opposite of what you’re stating.”
“Well, what do you expect?”
He was across the space between us in the next moment and shoving me against the wall. “You can be absolutely infuriating, you know that?”
“Right back at you.”
He grunted. “Last night was about me looking into your situation. The threat out there that your mother is so concerned about that she hired protection for you.” He gestured through the open kitchen door and through to the living room.
“Protection that I can feel right at the edge of my ward that I re-erected the moment I awoke to feel a Dark Fae ward in its place from Velra.”
“Yeah, they’re likely pissed that I evaded them for a good portion of the night, including the alcove sex with Velra.”
“Alcove? That’s where you took her?”
“Yeah. It’s kind of our spot.”
He winced, then pulled from me. “Better make this breakfast a good one, then.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You fucked her in a dirty alcove like an animal.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Not in the moment, I’m sure.”
“Not at all. She won’t see it like that.”
“Let’s make sure of it then. And, yes, that’s why I’m making the breakfast rather than merely conjuring it. Manners and a sprinkling of chivalry for the morning-after.”
“Morning-after? I don’t… oh, what you did for me that morning I woke up here after we were together, that’s… protocol?”
He frowned, then stilled for a moment. “This is your first time?”
“I mean, I’ve never dated before. Just fooled around with my Graverun groupies in the past.” I smiled to myself. “Until I came across Velra at our first Crossborn meeting.”
“That’s so sweet.”
A rush of lavender rolled over me.
And sex.
Our sex.
And I turned to see Velra walking in.
Walking in wearing nothing but my satin robe. Well, and my blood.
My pulse picked up.
My cock jerked like the beast that it was for her. Hell, for both of them.
“I mean, not the groupies aspect, but the rest.” She came to me then and pressed her hands to my chest, stroking softly. “Morning, sweets,” she said, before kissing me deeply in a head spinning way.
When she pulled back, she was grinning at me.
“Sweets?” Sylas questioned.
She lifted a shoulder. “I think it works. Why? Do you want a pet name too?”
“Maybe,” he said, grinning back at her.
She chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do about that. And, by the way, we absolutely did fuck in that alcove like animals last night and it was amazing.” She winked at me. “So perfect. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
My heart swelled at her words.
Sylas smiled. “Very good to know.”
She walked to him. “Offering to make breakfast like this is sweet too. Thank you.”
“Well, the least I can do after you helped save me last night is to feed you, yes?”
Her lips quirked at his humor deflection tactic and she winked at me, before needling him, “Dark Prince? How’s that for your pet name?”
He scoffed. “Prince? That’s a downgrade if I’ve ever heard one.”
“Can only be the King, huh?” I teased.
“King. God. Either will do.”
“God. Wow. You most definitely think a lot of yourself,” Velra said, chuckling.
“Something you’re well aware of, yet you’re still highly intrigued by.” He stepped up to her. “And something you made abundantly clear last night when your lips were on mine.”
“Before it was interrupted by me,” I said.
I could just imagine the look on his face when that’d happened. He’d finally made headway with her, and in a romantic sense, yet my exploits at Graverun had cut through it because of the alert she’d imbued into the bracelet she’d given me.
His eyes darted to it, then to my green robe covering Velra.
“You two are certainly fans of marks of possession.”
I doubted Velra would admit it—at least not yet—but giving me this bracelet and imbuing it with her magic had definitely come across as a mark of possession she’d made on me.
And as for her wearing my robe, I’d absolutely intended it in that way last night.
I’d ripped her clothes off her, sure, but she could have easily conjured more.
Instead, though, she’d let me wrap her in my robe.
She’d wanted it, wanted a piece of me on her.
Well, another piece of me. She still had my blood and cum on her, I could scent it all over.
“I’m working on something for you, especially in light of last night,” Velra told him.
Color me intrigued.
Before I could ask, Sylas moved closer, his bare chest brushing her breasts covered only by the thin satin, and I heard her breath hitch. “If you don’t take a shower before breakfast is ready and scrub that blood off you, I’m gonna be working on my own marks of possession all over you.”
My blood heated at his words.
The intensity skyrocketed as she stared up at him, noting the undeniable challenge in his tone. It was more than just a comment with him, more than just flirting.
I could feel it, I could see it with the tent in his crimson silk pants, the carnal heat in his eyes.
He wanted to finish that kiss.
He wanted more than that.
He needed to be right there with us, not on the periphery.
“Well, I’m not going to do that. I prefer to eat first this morning and shower after,” Velra informed him.
Surprise flickered in his eyes.
She usually backed down when something decidedly sexual was in play, or when things got too intense.
But last night had opened the floodgates for her.
All that need and passion she’d kept locked down for so long was free now.
And it was clear that she wanted to let it loose, to explore it more.
In the next beat, Sylas fisted her hair, then crushed his mouth to hers.
A gasp escaped her, but the shock was only for a second before she dug her nails into his biceps and jerked him tighter to her as she gave it right back to him, the kiss an explosion of ferocious passion that had my cock reacting fucking fiercely.
I saw that talented tongue of his come into play, and then the surprise from him when Velra met his strokes and tangled with him in the insanely erotic way she had with me last night.
The way she kissed when she was caught up in the moment…
it was another level. It was honestly fucking mind-blowing, and his eyes flicked to mine briefly, indicating he’d registered the same thing.
I smiled to myself and sank against the wall as she gave him a run for his money, scraping her black-painted nails down his chest and making him groan into her mouth, then snag her hip and yank her tightly against him as he ground against her.
He broke their kiss and bit and sucked at her throat, her collarbone, easing aside the robe a little so he could get her shoulder, then down to the tops of her breasts. She undulated against him and threw her head back, sexy moans spilling from her lips.
“Keep my marks on you,” he breathed at her ear in that hot thrilling tone of his. “Don’t heal them. I want to see them all fucking day on your delectable skin.”