Chapter Five
Sixteen Hours Earlier
Ronin
“So your answer is no?” I asked, backing away.
She nodded. “It’s no. We’re both asking too much of each other, so, let’s stop. You don’t have to protect me, and I won’t bond with you. But maybe we could, you know, be friendly with each other from here on out?”
I scoffed, turning on my heels and walking out. “You and your made-up words.”
I slammed the door shut on her sigh.
Crossing to the end of the hall, I made it all the way to the second floor and outside of my room, before punching a hole through the wall.
“Arrggghh!” I roared, anger steaming and boiling my blood. “What is it with this blasted woman?! Why does she refuse me? Me! No one fucking refuses me! There was once a bidding war for my toenails! They sold for two million silver obols!”
Ripping my fist out, I shook the dust and debris from my knuckles as I ignored the fool who shouted through the wall—cursing me for punching a hole in his dorm room.
Kicking my door open, I paced the length of my carpet—my mind spinning as the naked woman in my bed beckoned me over.
“Ro-Ro, what are you doing?” Kama rolled on my sheets, giggling and purring at me. “Come over here and join me.”
“What is wrong with her? Is she broken? Is she blind?” I hissed, tapping my lips.
“She’s never seen me without my glamour, but what does that matter?
Even with the glamour, I’m a million times more handsome than the mutt, and I’m richer and more powerful than he is.
Why does she pant after his protection but reject mine? ”
Neither the air nor my mind had an answer to my questions, but the voice in my head did have a response.
“This won’t do.”
“No, this won’t do at all.” Reaching into the fold of my jacket, I took out the mirror.
This mirror was advanced, tricky magic. The cost of it was the continuous, nonstop feeding of my magic to keep it powered, to keep it watching, to keep it recording. But never had the cost been more worth it.
The clouds and swirls contained in the mirror’s depths parted, leaving only her.
Charlotte was where I left her, standing beside the bedroom door. Turning away, she dropped down cross-legged on the armchair and started fiddling with her phone.
“Ro-Ro? Hello?” Temper leaked into Kama’s voice. “Ronin, are you listening to me!”
Tapping the screen, the view spun around—positioning me as if I was looking over her shoulder. It gave me the perfect view of Tristan scrawled all over her DeadDrop screen.
A snarl tore from my lips. “This fucking mutt again. Guess it wasn’t enough to kick him to another wing.”
Another tap and the view changed, refocusing on Charlotte. Only Charlotte.
I traced the edges of her smile, anger rising as she laughed at something he’d written.
“Everything I want is mine,” I whispered, snapping my fingers and vanishing a screeching Kama back to where she came from. “And everything you want, Charlotte, is and will be... me.”
THAT NIGHT, I WATCHED as Charlotte drifted off to sleep beside her precious sister.
I’d never had one of those, but I couldn’t imagine I was missing anything.
Everyone I knew with a sister has had to defend against at least half a dozen murder attempts from said sister.
Why Hunter was so protective of a homicidal rival who was born of Lucifer, I’d never know, but these days the mirror constantly showed her as two people—her and the sister attached to her hip.
As Charlotte’s breaths evened in sleep, I snapped my fingers and I was there—standing at the foot of her bed.
I approached in the dark, my feet as soundless as a demon’s should be.
“Mmhh,” she moaned, a frown stealing over her lips.
I drew closer still—the mere sound and smell of her drawing me in like a witch to the stake. Memories assaulted me as I reached for her.
“My— My lord B-Belphe?”
Father reclined on his throne-slash-bed. All around him a flurry of attendants offered him wine, grapes, cheeses, cakes—a veritable feast.
Their incessant simpering fell quiet under my bellowing, raging roars.
Fists tangled in my servant’s hair, I yanked and pulled it out by the root—wailing as I gnawed on his scalp and kicked his shoulders.
I was in a fantastic mood that morning. The delegation from House Zuriel had brought along another pile of presents, and Father said I could have all of them, and the delegation too.
“Arrghg! Agh!” I seized his gills, fighting to rip them free. My new servant was an axolotl demon. He had weird feathery gills on his head. I wanted weird feathery gills. I would have his.
“I think the young lord w-wants you,” the servant grunted out. “He does miss you so t-terribly when you’re apart.”
“Hmmm?” Father barely opened his eyes. He looked as if the mere act of turning his head to face us was too taxing. “Very well. Bring him here.”
The axolotl was quick in his movements. Bounding across the throne room, he peeled me off and deposited me beside Father.
I gazed up into the face that would be my own—pleased as ever to be beside him once again—and threw a punch.
Half a dozen palms flew between my fist and my father’s nose, bouncing my hit off the firm barrier.
Father chuckled. “Not yet, my young sapling. When you have embraced true beauty—true sloth—no one would dare deny your punches, or pawn you off to hang on to their gills. They will give you all that you want, because all you want is destined to be yours.”
“Arghg ishe yheel gee!” I was only fifty-three years old; I wasn’t freaking talking yet.
But I did understand. I repeated my father’s words, branding that truth on my bones.
All that I want is mine.
I palmed my cock, stroking furiously as I drank her in.
I had many things— No, I had all things.
I had a bed made of the finest fallen angel feathers there were.
I was served only the most delectable of fae cuisine.
I had every new thing before it came out.
I was brimming with power I didn’t even need to use, because all I had to do was drop my glamour, and life came to me on a silver platter.
I had everything except the one thing that no one had in hell... a mortal.
And how delicious this mortal was.
Hair as black as blood cascaded over the pillow like an ebony waterfall. The bright blush of life stained her lips and cheeks red, and my cock twitched in my hand at the mere anticipation of the day those lips would wrap around my dick as her cheeks caved in—sucking me dry.
I picked up the pace, grasping at the bedframe as the vision took me over.
She was magnificent. She was new, she was rare, she was mine.
And when she did that thing with her mouth and her face lit up with—with—with—
Dammit, what’s the word?!
My vocabulary failed me, but my memory didn’t. Clear as day, I saw her as she was the morning the imp made fools of us all.
All of us except her.
Yes, by then, the glamour had broken for me, and I saw the new student for who she truly was. A sudden and surprising accident that came about when I was silently, and invisibly, stalking the worm with the intent to kill him for sticking a finger up my ass.
I was all poised to strike, when she whispered the wrong thing to the snake in her blouse, and the scales were ripped from my eyes.
That day, she laughed and played with the imp—smiling a smile that wasn’t mocking, sneering, or ironic. The smile rose in my mind—teasing the dimples from her plump cheeks and brightening her eyes until—
Near collapsing, I grunted as I spilled my seed—spurting warm on her cheeks, nose, and mouth.
Pleasure wracked my senses and nerve endings, awakening them to ecstasy they’d long forgotten. Smirking, I traced her lips—painting them with my cum.
Charlotte moaned, frowning and shifting under the disturbance.
“How dare you enter my domain in a glamour,” I hissed.
“How dare you conceal yourself from me. How dare you shower those bastards, leeches, and mutts in attention that’s mine and mine alone.
How dare you look me in the face while you speak of serving that winged shit Lucifer. And how dare you refuse me now.”
My smirk widened. “But don’t worry, I promised to fix all of your mistakes for you.” One hand snapped its fingers and cleaned her face, while the other picked up her phone. “Your lord and master will make sure you understand how things are done in your new home.”
Bypassing her code with ease, I opened her DeadDrop app, read through her conversation with Tristan, and then deleted Tristan’s contact and blocked him. But not before magically inserting one last text from the furry shit.
I scoffed as I tossed her phone down. “Forget about that mutt and forget about being Lucifer’s errand girl.
You don’t need to choose between saving your sister and giving Lucifer the keys to the gates of hell, because if your sister is the one thing keeping you here...
” My fingers were gentle stroking her temple. “Then your sister is never leaving.”
“Mmh... meer... ug,” she mumbled in her sleep—her lips pouting, and tempting me stronger than I could resist.
Dipping down, I pressed a featherlight kiss to her lips.
My fingers were dialing before I straightened and headed out of the room.
Ring. Ring. Rin—
“Yes, boss?” came a groggy voice.
“What the fuck did I tell you about answering on the first ring?”
“Yes, boss,” he cried, waking the fuck up. “Sorry, boss.”
“You’ve got twelve hours.” My eyes fixed on her as the door swung shut, lingering until the very last second. “You get her to make that phone call, or I’ll show you what I do to useless shits.”
“Yes, boss,” Kazuya said. “We are your loyal servants, Prince Sloth. Your will is our life.”
I cringed at the slobbering devotion in the fool’s voice.
All it took was a peek behind my glamour to get the three of them to fall to their knees, begging to pledge their loyalty to House Sloth.
I needed unpledged demons that already had a grudge against my Charlotte to harass her, so that neither she nor the mutt would guess I was manipulating things behind the scenes.