Chapter 13 Jasmine
Stunned into silence, Sai wastes no time extracting himself from Kane’s shadows, dropping his head—face first—into my thighs.
“Fuck.” His hands lift to rest on my calves. “Thank fuck. Thank the fucking holy fuckness. Whoever the fuck is up there.” Then he starts moaning muffled things in what sounds like Faeish.
I know I shouldn’t let him touch me. Not yet, not after everything. But goddesses, I’ve missed it.
My fingers clench around the edge of my chair, because if I don’t, I know they’ll end up buried in his soft curls.
“Are you sure?” Kane’s voice is so light, filled with… disbelief. He can’t accept what I’ve said, can’t process it or what it means.
But I know what he’s really asking. I hear the whispered shadow beneath those words as his stormy eyes lock with mine.
Even me?
I could nod, that would be enough. But no.
“Yes, Kane.” I need him to hear it. And he needs it too.
That seems to wake him, and the others.
“Get off her.” Ezekial reaches for Sai, but an electrified barrier erupts, sparks crackling in warning.
There’s a low growl from Ezekial. “Sai, you need to ground yourself.”
“I am grounded,” he mumbles into my legs, lips right above my knees, meaning the vibration shoots straight up. “I’m so fucking grounded right now, I’m practically the floor.”
I laugh, and Sai lifts his face until his chin rests upon my knees, staring up at me with icy-blue admiration. “I never thought I’d hear that sound in person again.”
“You might not hear it again if you don’t move.” I flick my gaze to the men surrounding us to make my point clear.
They’re all tense, still, and their frustration is bubbling, spiking with…. jealousy.
A dangerous emotion. Almost as potent as rage.
“Off, Sai.” Ezekial again, but rougher.
But Sai doesn’t even blink, ignoring him completely. “But don’t I look good down here?” His smirk is small, but wicked. “Because you look so fucking good from this angle, baby.”
I forgot how dirty Sai can make his internal voice, the soft rasp caressing my mind like the fingers on my legs.
It’s so distracting, that when flickers of metallic light erupt, morphing into a loop around Sai’s neck and yanking back—I jolt, and my knee smashes up, into his mouth, with a horrific crack.
Still on his knees, Sai grapples with the coil leashing him. “You prick!” he snarls, glaring at Ezekial.
“You weren’t listening,” he responds, then internally. “Behave like a dog, I’ll treat you like one.”
But I can’t look away from Sai, even when his makeshift collar dissipates in a flutter of blue crackles, all I see is his bloody mouth.
My darkness latches onto him, embracing his cheeks and skimming his lips as I fixate on the injury I caused.
The thin split in his lip oozes blood, but it’s now being stitched together by my threads of darkness.
Sai stares up at me, and when my shadows fade away, his tongue darts out, clearing away the remaining blood. All the while, he watches me.
Then he grins. “Someone punch me in the face. Make sure I bleed.”
“Gladly.” Zeek rounds the table, and Sai hops to his feet.
Julien holds out a hand, halting Ezekial’s advances. “No. Now is not the time. We’re all too close to the dark—”
“Listen, big guy,” Sai cuts in, “if Zeek hits me, then you hit him and—Kane, you want in on this?” Kane lifts a single brow, and Sai resumes as though it never happened. “Okay, Zeek and I can both deck Julien, then—”
“No more lies.” Kane’s dry droll for some reason tickles me, but I stifle any expression. I can’t react to something I shouldn’t be hearing.
And why do I find this whole thing… sweet? Sai’s trying to orchestrate a brawl just so my darkness touches him again? And Kane chips in with a new mantra that makes my stomach flutter.
Although the bickering and scheming and secret mind conversations are entertaining. I haven’t finished.
I sit up straight, and clear my throat. Immediately, their conversation stops, and all their eyes sweep to me.
“We haven’t finished.” I nod to their chairs. “Sit.”
I can do this. I won’t get distracted. I’ll end this meeting on my terms—
Was that… Did Sai just… bark?
My eyes snap to him, but he just smiles, teeth bared together, nose scrunched like he’s about to—
“Do that again, I’ll get you a real collar and chain you up,” Zeek murmurs sharply whilst, to his credit, following my order and dropping back into his seat.
Julien leans against the table right beside Ezekial. “Ezekial, don’t rile him…”
“You wanna add me to your freaky mutt collection?” Sai grins, while grabbing the chair next to Kane just to fling it away and sit on the table instead.
“Shall we intervene?” Julien suggests and, to my surprise, he directs it at both Kane and me.
Kane glances at me, waiting for my response, but I’m too busy watching Sai and Ezekial sling insults at each other, leaning over the table, getting closer and closer.
When Sai bares his teeth, a rumble forming in his chest, the light in Ezekial’s gaze starts to fracture—
A shadow snaps around Sai’s mouth. He flinches, pulls back, eyes landing on me.
“No. No more barking, Sai.” A sentence I never thought I’d say.
His eyes blaze, head tilting. “Call me a ‘good boy’ again, and I’ll behave.”
My mouth drops open. I shut it. But not before he sees, and I know he’s grinning beneath that shadowy gag.
The others don’t react, he’s keeping this between us. Like some private, dirty joke.
“I didn’t—you… that was a joke. It was to belittle you, make you feel small—”
“It made me feel the opposite, baby,” he murmurs, heated gaze trailing over my body, my chest, resting on his chain.
“Stop talking.” I turn away, determined to address the men who aren’t making animal noises. “I’ve thought about how we can—”
“Fuck, I love when you speak to me like that.” Sai’s voice slips back into my mind in a wicked rasp. “Makes me feel the opposite of small. Makes me feel large and har—”
“Good boys listen to their masters.” I slice him with my gaze, making it clear the interruptions stop now.
“Oh, fuck me,” he splutters, eyes shut, words barely audible beneath my darkness binding his lips.
I wait to see if he’ll listen, if he’ll make true on his words and behave. When he leans back on the table with one hand, watching but silent, I continue.
“Moving forwards.” I clasp my hands together on the table, pretending Sai wasn’t just whispering into my head. “I think it would be best if we started again. A clean slate.”
Even beneath the gag, Sai’s cheeks show he’s grinning. Julien nods, Ezekial smiles, but Kane… it’s like he knows.
Because he just watches me, waiting, those dark eyes steady.
“As friends,” I say.
It’s like a bomb explodes.
Or the aftermath of one. The moment when time freezes, and silence thickens just before the chaos erupts.
Well, it would be silent, if I couldn’t hear them.
“Did I… did I fucking hear that right?” Sai starts.
“Keep calm, just… just let her keep talking,” Ezekial murmurs.
“I believe she has finished.” I feel Julien’s gaze land upon my clasped hands, trailing over my stern posture. “She’s waiting for our response.”
“Our response is fucking ‘no’!”
Ezekial’s gaze flashes to Sai. “We can’t just say no!”
He scowls. “Erm, yes, we can. Look, I’ll say it—”
Another barricade of darkness slides over Sai’s mouth and his eyes narrow into angry slits of blue. But Kane’s stony gaze drills into Sai with several silent threats that stop him from saying anything.
“Is that a problem?” I ask, sweet as sin, enough sugar to sting.
“YES!” Sai screams in his mind. Thankfully, everyone winces, meaning no one sees my flinch.
Now, I simply wait, studying each man, knowing the serum will be burning away, and that the need to answer my question will start to feel unbearable...
“Julien, fucking save us, man.” Sai seeks him out, eyes wide and pleading.
So do I, and the vampire who always seems so aloof and knowledgeable, as though he’s seen a thousand lifetimes, now looks… panicked.
I can see the cogs turning in that ancient mind as his eyes meet mine and the serum begins to gnaw away at his restraint.
“Initially, it may—”
“Initially?” I parrot back with a coy smile.
Julien stills, pauses. “To begin with… at the start...”
I smirk. I’ve turned him into a dictionary.
“Why would we only be friends initially?” I query.
“Friendships take many forms. They’re complex, and they can… evolve. Become…”
And now he’s an encyclopaedia.
“Become what, exactly?” I press, leaning in, watching him shift.
“Well, they can become… more,” Julien’s voice is tight.
I quirk a brow. “And by more you mean—”
“Mayday! Mayday!” Sai eyes dart to Ezekial. “Save him, Zeek.”
“If that’s what you think you need,” Ezekial intervenes, stopping my question from fully forming.
His eyes are a calm silver, his posture relaxed as he leans back.
I want to change that.
I lace my fingers together, placing them under my chin. “But what do you think I need, Ezekial?”
His small smile drops, and he turns stoic. “I think you need... a lot of things.” The words come out staggered.
Wow. Mr. Eloquent, cool and calm—Lord—is struggling to string a sentence together.
I wet my lips and lean forwards just so, holding a soft, uncertain furrow between my brows. “Oh, you do? Such as?”
Ezekial blinks, but is otherwise frozen. “For us to accept your offer of friendship,” he says robotically.
I barely stop my smirk. The burning sensation must be agony right now, and I find myself not wanting to make it worse.
“What about you, Sai?” The sudden switch has them all tensing.
I cant my head, sweeten my voice, and indulge in the nervous apprehension blooming from the others.
“My dearest friend, please concentrate,” Julien pleads. “Think before you speak a word.”
I glance at Kane and instantly, the tendril trapping Sai’s mouth disintegrates, revealing a smirk.
“Baby, you can call us whatever you want. Friends, enemies, lovers, whatever. I’ve told you, as long as it comes from your lips, call me—call us—whatever you want.”