Chapter Ten #4
Most of the professors didn’t bother assigning homework because none of the students would do it, but Connard was a particular kind of creep who used the threat of expulsion for literally everything.
He demanded a five-page paper on the true history of the Great Invasion, and how it led to the downfall of demon society.
He also said we had to use Abaddon Academy and its disgraceful co-species education rule as one of the examples.
So, naturally, I was writing five pages on how supernatural creatures were banished to hell by witches against their will, but ever since, they’ve made demon society better by bringing about awesome fae food, the expert craftwork of the master wolfsmiths, the opportunity to learn the long and fascinating history of mortals through vampire eyewitness accounts, and, most importantly, a new and hopeful future of unity and diversity—and yes, I was adding detailed definitions of what those words meant.
“Let’s see who’s a kiss-ass bitch now,” I muttered.
A knock sounded on my bedroom door. Since Dora was in the shower, there was only one person that could be.
Opening the door, I found Ronin on the other side of it dressed in nothing but a robe. He held a vial I recognized in his palm.
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
Ronin held up the aphrodisiac, face hard and anger dancing in his eyes. “Shall we?”
I didn’t move for a beat, swallowing hard.
I knew what this was, and I knew why. The night before, I let Ronin have my body but I didn’t let him have my pleasure.
That night, he was taking both. No matter how hurt and enraged I was by what he did.
No matter how hard I bit my lips, he would have me screaming his name in five minutes flat.
“Problem?”
I met his eyes, and the challenge in them. “No,” I rasped. “There’s no problem.”
“Then get undressed and get on the bed. I assume I won’t need to tie you up this time?”
I said nothing. I just closed the door behind me and stripped off my dress, bra, and panties. Every part of it was mechanical—no passion, no excitement, no joy. I may as well have been getting undressed for a gynecological exam.
Ronin trailed me as I climbed on the bed and settled on the pillows. Accepting the vial, I unstoppered it, raised it to my lips and—
“Pffttt!”
I froze, eyes rounding on him. Was he... laughing?
Unable to hold back anymore, Ronin let loose—guffawing until he fell over across my legs. “I can’t t-take it anymore,” he wheezed, clutching his stomach. “You were really going to do it! Haha! After all that bitching and moaning about me drugging you, you were actually going to drug yourself!”
Vial still touching my lips, I stared at him—not comprehending what was going on for a second.
“I’m almost impressed with you,” he said, chuckling as he wiped the tears from his eyes. “You know how much your defiance turns me on, so you’ve been this obedient little yes-woman all day because you thought it would turn me off.
“Yeah, I knew what you were doing,” Ronin told my slack jaw and blown brows. “I only played along, acting like I was pissed off because I wanted to see how far you’d take it, and apparently it’s this far.” He pointed at the vial. “Oh, baby girl, you seriously miscalculated on this one...”
A horrible, rancid feeling burned in my gut as he and his smirk came closer.
“...because as much as you tempt me when you buck and bite and snarl”—he pressed a light kiss to my lips—“I love you even more when you’re broken.
“So stay just like this,” Ronin whispered, drowning me in his gaze. “Afraid.”
In that instant, something inside me snapped. “You monster!” Winding back my fist, I swung.
“Stop.”
An icy cold sensation spread from my tattoo and down my arm, stopping it dead in its tracks only millimeters from Ronin’s smirking mouth.
“You’re welcome,” he breezed, dropping kisses on my knuckles. “We both know that would’ve hurt you way more than it would’ve hurt me.”
“What is wrong with you!” I shrieked. “I really believed that you were going to leave me in their sweaty clutches! You don’t care at all that you terrified me last night?”
He cocked his head. “Should I?”
I rocked back, struck speechless. Lips trembling, wetness rolled down my cheeks.
“Ahh, tears. Here they come again. Why do you make this so personal, pet?” Ronin caught a tear on his fingertip and painted it on my lips.
“I don’t want to see you hurt or angry. I just want to see you be mine.
Because everything I want is mine,” he stated.
“Not everything that’s mine comes to me easily, but just because there are obstacles in the way doesn’t change the outcome. ”
His eyes sharpened. “And just because the obstacle is you doesn’t make a difference. You belong to me now. And you can be as fiery, or violent, or loud, or simpering as you want as long as you are all of those things, and the most important thing—obedient.”
I sniffed, clutching my fist to my chest. Even though he made light of me for crying, I couldn’t stop. “That’s all you care about? The little puppy can bark and scratch and chew your shoes all it wants as long as it heels when you tell it to heel, and rolls over when you want it to roll over.”
Ronin leaned back, reclining on the bedpost in his sinfully loose, silk robe that was doing nothing to hide the pearled weapon half-cocked between his legs. I was before him crying... and he was turned on.
“Hmm. I don’t know what a puppy is,” Ronin replied, “but it seems like you’ve got the right idea.”
“Bullshit.”
A slightly raised brow was the only sign of his displeasure. “Excuse me?”
“It’s bullshit!” I screamed. “If you really wanted another sycophant worm to crawl on its belly behind you, all you had to do was show me your true face, Ronin! Just being in the room with it made me want to forgive you for every horrible thing you’ve done.
Hera knows what a mess the full blast would’ve made of me.
“We both know that you could’ve had my obedience without making Kazuya and his friends attack me.
Without tricking me into the sub bond. Without fucking lust potions.
And without that horrible, disgusting choice you forced on me last night.
” I was an ugly crier. Splotchy cheeks, crumpled brow, snotty nose, and twisted grimace.
I looked as bad as one could look right then, and still the most hideous person in the room to me... was sitting right in front of me.
“You never had to do any of this,” I croaked. “But you did because hurting me was the point. Breaking me was the point!”
In a blink, the vial was flying across the room. It smashed over the mantel and sprayed its contents on the fire.
Whoosh!
The fire roared to life, shooting burning tendrils free of its confines and aiming for any and everything.
Ronin whirled around as the armchair caught fire, and I swung.
“Well, you won.”
Slapping him soundly across the face, I ripped a grunt out of him as pain exploded in my face.
“Ahhh!” Shrieking my agony, I clutched my cheek and ran—escaping through my bedroom door.
“Charlotte!”
I burst inside, startling Dora, then slammed and locked the door shut before darkness took me, and I collapsed on the carpet.
THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up in my bed. Even though Dora was snoozing away in the bed next to me, I knew she picked me up and put me to bed because I had three times as many blankets piled on top of me, and a cup of cold cocoa waiting for me on my nightstand.
Usually, the sight of both would’ve cheered me, but I felt nothing... and that was all I needed to make up my mind.
Kicking out from under the blankets, I found my phone on the coffee table where I left it. I picked it up and dialed the number without hesitation.
He answered on the first ring.
“Hi, honey! Is it my deathday? Why else would you gift me your beautiful voice first thing in the morn—?”
“Most of the vampire covens have a deal with Lucifer to be his personal spies and assassins,” I sliced in—my voice as emotive as a rock. “Yours is one of them, isn’t it. That’s why you know so much about Lucifer, and what he’d do if he became a god.”
There was a deep silence on his end of the phone.
“Yes,” Santino said flatly. “To both your statements.”
“Are you spying on me for him?”
“No.” That reply came with no pause or hesitation.
“How do I know that’s true?” I probed.
“You don’t. But I hope you will believe that it’s the head of my coven that made a deal with him, not me personally. I have no contract with him. He has none with me. I am not beholden to his bidding.”
I inclined my head, accepting this. What else could I do? “Beholden to him or not, are you allowed to enter House Lucifer, or Pomaris, or whatever it’s called?”
“Yes. Why?”
Turning around, I glanced at Dora... and then to the door leading to Ronin’s room. “Because Mommy’s moving in with Daddy.”