Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
So I’m going to die even sooner than I expected.
Mina’s shoulders fell once she’d exited the banquet hall. She’d disguised her anxiety about her future in front of the others, even when it felt like tiny needles stabbed her chest from the inside.
Her options were all dire. Disaster awaited her in the ghoul queen’s hive. Should Mina somehow survive without being turned—and escape Nightside—then a barter with Dorada awaited her.
No, Mina could never surrender her freedom to that sorceress. So without the wishgiver, how long would she have to search the worlds for a cure?
How long?
How long?
What if she escaped this place only to become a danger to those in the mortal realm? The tiny needles were back in force. Seeking comfort, she reached for her sword but grasped air.
Maybe she should embrace the mindlessness on tap here. As soon as the thought occurred, she grew ashamed. In fact, she felt as if she’d betrayed the sorcerer by leaving him behind—as if she’d abandoned a wounded ally in hostile territory.
The feeling confused her. His impairment could only help her protect Mirceo. And more, she liked Enti and her crew. If they needed pleasure-seeking and parole fairy tales to get through the nights, then maybe Mina shouldn’t judge them.
A sudden vibration rumbled beneath her feet. Surely, she couldn’t be the only one concerned about these quakes.
When she reached the stairs, the foursome on the steps had escalated their pursuits in number, nudity, and intensity. She veered around the growing orgy, trying to ignore them, but the desperation in their touches struck her. She wasn’t the only one concerned. They sensed this place was on borrowed time, yet they didn’t dare fight for a different ending to their story.
Hampered by fear and ruled by pleasure. She pitied those immortals, thought them tragic, but if they met her halfway, she would help them.
She’d just made it to her door when footsteps sounded behind her. With his broad shoulders back, a sober Silt strode down the corridor.
Relief swept through her, but she made her tone bored. “I thought you’d be imbibing.”
“Maybe I’m just enough of a contrarian prick to walk away. Of course, the night’s young.”
“When we were outside this castle, you smelled the drug from afar, didn’t you? That’s why you hesitated to come here.”
He gave a shrug that belied how conflicted he’d been. The fact that this sorcerer desired to change made her heart twist. “If you truly don’t want to smoke again, what do you think will happen here? And if you give in, then another Sorceri could take your root power from you.”
“That’s true, but I doubt anyone wants it. As you’ve noted—repeatedly—my ability suffers, and sand sorcery is hardly an asset when there’s none around.”
“You need to leave this castle. Just keep moving. I can tell the cravings are gripping you even as we speak.”
He stabbed his fingers through his hair. “Because without smoke everything is . . . askew. Everything feels jagged and raw.” He looked more frustrated than she’d seen him, even over the last few days as they’d faced such hardships. And he peered hard at her—as if she were the source of his struggles.
Was he feeling more for her? Her attraction to him refused to fade. What would have happened if they’d met under different circumstances?
“Enough about this,” he said. “I want to know if you’re seriously considering an incursion.”
“Planning one as if my life depends on it. Have you changed your mind about going?” Her hopeful tone embarrassed her. But he had saved her life. At times, their partnership had worked?—
“Not a chance.”
Good, she rushed to assure herself. His staying in Nightside would defuse the danger he posed. Unless Mirceo showed up here.
“Vampire, as I said before, if an escape existed, then those ghouls would have overrun the mortal realm.”
“Maybe the exit requires a toll—like a blood sacrifice or reciting an incantation—that the ghouls aren’t sentient enough to understand. No matter, I’ll soon find out.”
“You’re not short on courage, are you?” This seemed to trouble him. “With a sword from Enti, you can get through those revenants outside the castle, maybe even a number of ghouls in their hive, but a primordial—one that must not bleed—is going to prove tricky. How did your uncle kill one anyway?”
Since an arena full of Loreans had watched Trehan’s match, Mina saw no reason not to tell Silt about it. “He stole a magical scythe with a flaming blade from the Vrekeners, then got a mystic to superpower it. The blade’s unnatural heat cauterized as it sliced, preventing blood loss.”
Silt looked impressed. “Good for him. The Vrekeners are no friends to my kind.”
That demonic clan had long punished Sorceri for magic outlays, had even attacked Bettina.
“I’m going to ask Enti if she can create a similar scythe for me. When I leave, I go to war—I’m going to give myself the best chance of winning it.”
“And if there’s no escape? Just because the mountain is unexplored doesn’t mean it holds what you seek.”
“Then I’ll die fighting, won’t I?”
His gaze flicked over her face, as if he were reading an indecipherable text. “I can understand your drive—you have no choice—but others will never follow you.”
“Because they believe in the parole myth, and they want to believe Nightside will endure. It’s easier that way. But if they dug deeper”— if you dug deeper —“they’d understand they don’t have a choice either. This ship is sinking. The swim is long. The more we hesitate, the farther away the shore is getting.”
His brows drew together, his gaze fierce. “Are you even real?” he murmured as his hand shot out to grasp the back of her neck. “Your will is glittering sand. I wish I could steal it like a Sorceri power.” He dragged her closer and leaned his head down.
“Exercise your own will, and you can have the same.” She leaned up, helplessly drawn to him. “Sorcerer, what do you want from me?”
Bafflement crossed his face. “I fucking do not know. All I know is that our kiss was not enough.” He grazed his lips across hers, the slight contact sparking a bombardment of pleasure.
Not enough? On this . . . I agree.
Maybe she should enjoy a bit of play with him—up to a point—before she departed. Before I am departed. Another graze of his lips convinced her. She gripped his shoulders and squeezed to encourage him. I won’t let it go further.
Between kisses, he reached behind her and opened the door to her room. They stumbled inside, and he managed to close them in.
He pressed her against the closest wall, nuzzling and licking her neck until her head fell back, offering him more flesh to taste. “I think you’ve been sent into my life to torment me.” He tongued her pulse point, sucking it with a groan.
She moaned, her senses drinking him in like blood down her throat. His scent. His voice. The heat from his body. “And you’ve been sent to madden me.”
He was only getting started. He reached for her tingling breasts, fondling them.
“Yes!” She arched to his touch, shimmying for more contact.
Against her neck, he rasped, “I’ve wanted to play with these since I saw them bouncing in your wet T-shirt. I crossed a wasteland as hard as granite for you.”
She tried to marshal her thoughts enough to speak. “You look good in a towel.” So sexy, Mina.
He gave a rough laugh, a puff of air against her damp skin. “Admit it, you’ve wanted your hand on my cock since you saw me half-dressed earlier. You wanted to stroke me. Suck me.”
His spicy language shocked and aroused her. She couldn’t lie. “During dinner, I pictured scenarios.”
He tweaked her nipples with light plucks that nearly put her on the ceiling. “Did you, then? Had my own imaginings.” One of his hands descended past her navel to the waist of her pants. He held her gaze, a question in his eyes.
Her throbbing nipples urged her to nod.
He eased his hand into her pants, into the heat of her silk panties. “Will I find you wet, princess?”
Yes! Even as her hips wantonly rolled, misgivings arose. “I shouldn’t allow this.”
“Should. I’m going to bring you off hard, make you wonder how you’ve lived without me.”
Could he? She breathlessly admitted, “I-I am in need of climax.”
Pained chuckle. “I’ll take care of you, sweet.” He flicked his tongue against her throat as he strummed her jutting nipples, and reason fled. Lodging his knee against the wall, he hooked her leg over it, parting her to his hand. He cupped her sex and groaned, “So wet . Gods, you please me.” Her soaked flesh blossomed against his hot hand.
Lost, she nodded and moaned, “Take care of me . . . bring me off.”
“You need this as badly as I do!” Clever fingers played with her arousal, spreading it all around.
Those caresses weren’t enough. She shifted, undulating to get his touch on her needy clitoris.
Yet he centered on her entrance. “I want inside you. Want my cock . . . here .” His finger inched into her channel, delivering revelations of pleasure—sensations only hinted at when she’d touched herself alone in bed. “ Tight. Are you a virgin, Kosmina?”
“Guh . . .” The sultry pressure made her head loll. “I . . . yes . . . yes . . .”
With his other hand, he clasped her nape to keep their gazes locked. “I want it. I want your innocence. You’re going to give it to me.”
The fog cleared enough for her to say, “N-no. Just touching. And I’m rethinking that as I speak?—”
He rubbed her bud, stealing her words more than shyness ever had. She jolted in his arms, nearing the precipice.
But he kept her there, returning his attention to her entrance. “So close to coming for me. Let me inside you.” He slowly thrust that finger into her channel, mimicking sex. “You need me filling this, the hungry core of you.”
She bucked on his hand. “Go back to where you were! Just a little more . . .”
“You’ll have what you want. For now.” He pumped his finger, grinding his palm against her clitoris. The tension mounted, sharpening to a diamond point.
Just as a frisson of fear arose—how much pleasure could she withstand?—she reached the very brink.
Teetering . . . resisting . . . wanting this to last forever . . .
“That’s it. Let it happen, princess.”
His voice broke her, broke the wave. She toppled over into rapture. Each slippery clench around his finger wrenched another cry from her lungs. “Ahhh . . . ahh . . . Silt!” Her head thrashed against the wall as ecstasy overwhelmed her.
“You’re coming for me so good.” At her sensitive ear, he said, “I feel you. You’ll grip my cock like that, won’t you?”
“Ah! I would,” she breathed, out of her mind. “I’ll take you so deep inside me.”
“Each squeeze drags me further under your spell. That’s it, beautiful.” Once he’d wrung every molecule of bliss from her, he rested his forehead against hers. While he played with her climax, she caught her breath and tried to recover cognition.
A satisfied sigh had just left her lips when his other hand yanked at the opening of his pants. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“What do you think?” His jaw muscles bulged, his lips thinned. “If a dripping-wet vampire needs me deep inside her, then that’s where I want to be.”
Mina’s body tightened at the thought of sex with Silt, his penis entering her as he caressed her face and murmured adoring words. She pictured the two of them making love like the couple in the clearing.
But it wouldn’t be like that. With him, it would never be like that.
No thanks.
“This is going to be mine.” Silt cupped her, giving a shudder when her orgasm soaked his palm. “Mine.” That word sounded foreign on his lips.
Gold was his. Revenge. But never another person.
No one belonged to him, and he belonged to no one.
He had those thoughts even as he hovered on the edge of coming, even as he wrestled to drag his pants down with one hand. This innocent vampire with her tender kiss had done something to him, making him feel like he’d been hexed with a desire spell.
“Wait.” She tugged his hand away and twisted from him. “I don’t want more.”
“If you’re worried about someone like me getting a babe on you, I have this, remember?” He flashed his cuff.
“That’s not it.”
“Then what? You might not know this, but your immortal body’s just getting started.”
“ We aren’t.” She finally met his gaze, appearing disgusted with herself.
That look sent him right back to thousands of years ago, when females had never wanted anything beyond a fuck. Probably because he’d had nothing more to offer. He’d been just a befouler.
“This was a mistake.”
“A mistake .” He wanted to rage. “Where have I heard that before?” What would it take to find someone who didn’t regret more with him? For once, he wanted a female in his bed who looked damned happy to be there—with no gold or transaction between them. Roiling inside, he fastened his breeches over his still hard shaft.
“Before you followed me up here, I’d been processing certain facts,” she said. “Any distraction would have appealed at the time.”
“You realized you’re going to die, and so you decided to slum it with the sorcerer?”
“In a moment of weakness, I succumbed to someone I should detest.”
He sneered, “Someone you came hard for.”
“I see what this is. I learned from watching the nymphs that males can attach strings to sex acts. I’m glad I didn’t allow this to go further.”
“ Males attach the strings?”
“Yes. Considering how we’ve both reacted to this touch of pleasure, our joining would be fiery and life-changing. You would never want to let me go, and that, sorcerer, would be a problem.”
The nerve of this leech! “I’ve had some fiery joinings in my long existence, and never have I attached anything, much less strings.” He was like sand—impossible to pin down, escaping any confines. Yet this arrogant waif thought he would change for her?
A part of him whispered, She’s aroused you like nothing before. Careful. “Over and over, I’ve met your type. Thinking you’re better than I am, but in the end, we’re all just animals looking to scratch an itch.”
“I’ve never met your particular type, and I hope I never will again.”
Cruel laugh. “The odds of that are good, princess.”
She exhaled a small gasp.
Low, Silt. Even for him. But her contempt got his back up.
In a quiet voice that somehow rang with strength, she said, “You—so rich in years and having squandered so many—continue to mock my likely death.” She softly added, “You don’t worship revenge, Silt . You revere grievances from the past, because you have even less of a future to look forward to than I have—and you know it.”
He pointed his finger at her, about to unleash his frustration.
But the denial wouldn’t come.
Seething, he gave her his back and stalked across the hall into his room, fighting the urge to destroy everything in sight. He paced, cursing the day he’d met that princess. His cock remained an iron bar of pain.
Another bath might help. He would call for the attendants, get this taken care of. Yet even now they didn’t tempt him. He hungered for only one thing.
Her. Kosmina Daciano.
He was obsessed.
Head still swimming from their encounter, he glanced down at his hand, and his gaze narrowed. The scent of her orgasm lingered on his palm. His length flared even harder, his body strung tight for her.
He brought his hand to his face to inhale her essence, his lids growing heavy. Covering his mouth, he . . . licked.
His eyes rolled back in his head. Sand almighty, yes.
With a muffled growl, he shoved his pants to his knees. He gripped himself with his free hand and almost spilled from the contact.
Shuddering, he cleaned his palm to the fantasy of tonguing her entrance . . . sucking her plump little clit . . . eating her till she came on his lips and her tight core squeezed. . . .
As her taste filled his senses, he fucked his fist, his cock burning from his callouses. So good. So good. He wanted to edge himself and wallow in this, but a merciless pressure mounted.
He dropped his hand from his mouth, readying to catch his seed. With a stifled roar against his shoulder, he spurted one heavy jet after another into his palm to mingle with the last remnants of her orgasm. . . .
Body gone limp, he collapsed back on a couch. Legs sprawled and mind thunderstruck, he caught his breath.
The fuck was that? He must’ve forgotten how good a sober release could feel.
But if he were honest—he really wasn’t—he’d admit that ejaculation had been the most explosive he’d ever known.
How? He hadn’t even taken her!
And yet.
He cast a scowl in her direction, confused as ever. Even post-release clarity wasn’t working for him. Clarity was in short supply all around.
As he washed off, he glanced down in disbelief. He’d hardened again. Hating Kosmina for that, seething with some foreign feeling of wrath, he left his room and charged downstairs to do what he should have done as soon as Enti had offered him all the delights in Nightside.