14. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
He had no intention of explaining what Cyra really was, a Hand of the Gods, a servant to the Nemesis itself. That was information Bressen didn’t want known, and his siblings didn’t need to know it to do their jobs.
“But-”
“You don’t need to know the details,” Samhail cut in before his brother could ask anything else. “The only thing you need to know is that Cyra is very important to the Trinity, and it’s your duty to make sure nothing happens to her.”
Surgeon and Serise both straightened as if they now had a sense of the honor bestowed on them.
They weren’t even close to the cadre Cyra deserved, but for the first time since he’d learned Bressen had taken them on, Samhail felt better.
He might not fully trust Surgeon and Serise, but he knew they’d protect Cyra with their lives.
They were being given the opportunity every gargoyle hoped for. The opportunity to be relevant again.
“And how does the little assassin figure into all this?” Surgeon asked.
“She works for Sandrian,” Samhail said. “Beyond that, we’re not entirely sure. Bressen will question her tomorrow to see what she knows.”
He tamped down the prickle that walked its way up his spine at the thought of the interrogation that lay ahead.
Bressen could break into Talyn’s mind to find out what he wanted to know, but he risked making a person go mad when he attacked like he’d done earlier.
It was a miracle he hadn’t already shattered the woman’s mind.
Instead, Bressen would enlist Samhail to help ‘persuade’ the assassin to talk, and for once Samhail wasn’t looking forward to what he’d have to do.
Normally he was more than happy to help Bressen deliver punishment or get people to talk, but those people were usually cowards content to prey on others who were weaker than them.
That wasn’t Talyn. She was a skilled assassin who’d – incredibly – held her own against him in a fight without her powers.
Granted he’d been going easy on her. He could’ve snapped her neck and been done with it at least half a dozen times during their fight in the cell, but she’d still given him more of a challenge than anyone in the recent past – aside from maybe Bressen and Maziren – and his gargoyle nature demanded he give her a grudging respect for that.
For fuck’s sake, she’d jumped off a balcony to get away with only the hope her powers would return before she hit the ground. The woman had nerves of iron. It wouldn’t be easy to torture her if she refused to talk, and he had a sinking feeling she’d refuse.
Samhail suddenly felt very tired.
“I’m going to bed,” he told the twins as his wings flared out behind him, causing several people on the street to cry out in surprise and jump back away from him. “I assume you know what you need to do now?”
They nodded.
“And you know if you fail to keep Cyra safe, the wrath of the Trinity will be the least of your worries?”
They frowned at the underlying threat but nodded again.
Samhail launched himself into the air without another word and flew back toward Tide’s End.
The twins might not like him threatening them, but they knew he was serious about holding them accountable.
Sandrian and Magdalene were still out there, most likely trying to come up with another strategy to get their hands on Cyra, and right now Surgeon and Serise were the first line of defense against them.
Samhail landed on the balcony of his rooms back at the manor a while later and undressed. He took a quick bath to get the grime off him from the – not one, but two – fights he’d had with the assassin today, then climbed into bed naked.
Now that he was in for the night, he regretted not trying to find a woman. A good fight always got his blood pumping and made him want to fuck, but that was especially true tonight after he’d fought the assassin.
Who was he kidding? He’d been semi-hard since she’d stripped in front of him. Gods above, he’d never seen legs like that on a woman, long and shapely with just enough muscle tone to give them a little extra curve in all the right places.
And her ass. He dreamed about watching his cock pump in and out between the beautiful swells of an ass like that. He hadn’t gotten a good look at her breasts, but if the rest of Talyn was any indication, they were probably lush and firm.
He groaned. His cock was hard, and he’d need to take care of it, but it felt inappropriate to get himself off while thinking about the assassin who’d tried to kill his two friends. What was wrong with him?
Samhail shook some oil from a bottle on his night table into his palm and wrapped his hand around his cock.
He stroked himself and tried to think about one of the women he’d seen in the tavern.
In the past, he sometimes pictured Cyra when he did this, but he’d tried to get away from doing so as much as possible recently, especially after the incident in the great room.
Cyra was no longer available to him, so it would only make things worse to think about her when he pleasured himself.
The memory of the blonde with large breasts he’d seen at the tavern came to him as he stroked himself in earnest. She would’ve been his first choice if Surgeon and Serise hadn’t forced him to leave early, and he settled in to imagine himself fucking her.
Within seconds, though, the blonde’s hair had taken on a reddish tinge in his mind, and her blue eyes had turned pale green.
Shapely legs wrapped around his hips as he thrust between them, and…
Samhail shook his head to banish the image of the assassin, but he couldn’t get his mind to latch onto the face of the blonde from the tavern.
Every time he tried, Talyn’s face replaced hers, and it only made him harder as he pictured her lips around his cock, moving up and down his length as her beautiful green eyes looked up at him.
For days now it had been Cyra in his mind as he remembered that time in the great room, but now it was Talyn he pictured there kneeling before him with her mouth wrapped around him.
“Fuck!” he gritted out as he stroked himself faster.
His hips arched off the bed of their own accord as he finally gave in to the fantasy. He could almost feel her lips and tongue on him, and he imagined bending her over the table in the great room to fuck her hard while she cried out his name.
Samhail clenched his teeth to stifle the roar of pleasure that surged up his throat as he came.
Milky white jets of his seed spurted into the hand he held over the head of his cock as it pulsed against his fingers, releasing over and over again until he eased back against the bed, fully spent.
He summoned a cloth to clean up, then settled in under the covers and hoped to the gods he’d be able to sleep now.
Tomorrow was going to be a long day. Talyn would undoubtedly mention during her interrogation what had happened in the cell, so there was little chance he’d get away without Bressen knowing about it.
Even worse was what he’d have to do to her. The thought of breaking her bones or cutting her smooth skin to get the answers Bressen wanted disturbed him more than he cared to admit. The screams he’d elicit tomorrow weren’t the kinds of screams he wanted from her.
No, tomorrow they’d both regret that The Raptor of Avril had ever come to Tide’s End.