Chapter 24 #3
I gasped against Lorcan’s palm as the flames roared higher. They licked everywhere, dancing over my nipples and between my legs. More waves pummeled me, sucking me down as swiftly as the dead blood Vander had siphoned. The chamber swam as need put tears in my eyes.
“Please,” I begged, clawing at Lorcan’s hand. At Vander’s arm around my waist. I scratched and writhed, my arousal pumping so hard and fast I couldn’t catch my breath. My knees buckled.
Vander caught me, then cursed softly as he lowered me to the floor. Lorcan crouched with us, and I sensed rather than saw them exchange a look. The air shifted, and suddenly Lorcan was seated on the floor behind me and Vander knelt at my feet.
“Come on,” Lorcan said firmly, gripping my waist and yanking me backward so I sprawled against his chest. “Good girl.” Cool air hit my flushed skin as he drew my hair away from my neck. “You have to ask,” he said in my ear. “Nothing happens unless you ask.”
Blood pounded in my ears. Between my legs. Desire drove my hips off the ground. Lorcan gripped them and held me still, his fingers hot through my layers of clothing.
“What did I say?” he demanded, his voice low and rough.
Another wave crested, and I sobbed as the pressure between my legs became a battering ram, every pulse more brutal than the last. My head spun, and I groped for the right answer, but it flitted away.
“I don’t know!” I cried.
Lorcan grasped my jaw and twisted my gaze to his. His dark eyes glittered above me. Moonlight wreathed his head, and pink stained his cheekbones as his voice went lower than I’d ever heard it. “Do you want Vander’s mouth on you?”
“Yes,” I said at once, relief within my grasp. A hot tear slipped down my cheek as the pressure twisted into pain. “Gods, yes.”
Lorcan’s pulse fluttered in his throat. His erection pressed against my backside. He looked at my mouth, then dragged a rough thumb over my bottom lip.
“You want his tongue on your pussy?” he murmured.
My moan split the air. He muffled it with a firm hand over my mouth.
“Say it,” he ordered, his other hand tight on my hip. “Say it against my skin. Repeat every word.”
My body shook as I obeyed, my trembling voice muffled by his hand. And somehow, that was even more carnal than lying in his lap with arousal soaking my underclothes.
He kept his dark eyes locked with mine as he said, “Do it, Sir Vander. Make her come.”
Strong hands tossed up my skirts. Lorcan released my jaw, and I turned my gaze to Vander as he yanked my drawers down my legs and pushed my knees wide.
He caught his breath. Lorcan’s fingers flexed against my hip. Vander’s nostrils flared, and his freckles stood out against his flushed skin as he stared between my legs with bright silver eyes.
“Look at you, Princess,” he rasped, his voice almost reverent. Before I could puzzle it out, he groaned. Then he shoved my legs wider and plunged his mouth to my sex.
The first lash of his tongue bowed my spine. The second put a cry on my lips, and Lorcan clamped his hand over my mouth again.
“Quiet,” he said, his breath caressing my ear.
I tried to nod, but then Vander’s tongue circled my clit, and I sank my fangs into Lorcan’s palm to keep from screaming. Hot, rich blood hit my tongue, and it was better than wine. Better than any blood I’d tasted. It sparked against my throat, the rush like sunlight playing over water.
Lorcan cursed as he jerked away his hand. “No biting,” he rasped, then grabbed my chin and forced my mouth to his. The men kissed me together, one thrusting his tongue against mine as the other stroked his around and around my clit.
My body jolted, lightning bolts of pleasure frazzling through me.
Vander growled and pushed his face deeper into my pussy, sucking and licking like a parched man finally led to water.
He worked his tongue up and down my folds and around my clit, biting and stroking as I sobbed into Lorcan’s mouth.
It was so good and too much and yet still not enough.
I shook with need, my hips bucking of their own accord.
“No,” Lorcan muttered against my lips. He hooked an arm under one of my knees and wrenched my thigh to my shoulder. “Let him in. Let him taste you.”
Vander’s growl of approval vibrated from my clit to my opening, which gaped under Lorcan’s uncompromising grip. Vander thrust his tongue inside me, and I panted against Lorcan’s mouth as my orgasm hovered just out of reach.
“More,” I growled, desperation cresting with my need. Tearing my mouth from Lorcan’s, I seized Vander’s hair and forced his lips to my clit.
He moaned against me, sending more vibrations through my body. He flattened his tongue against the swollen point of my desire. Then he pushed a long finger inside me while he sucked hard.
Release beckoned. I strained forward, grinding my pussy against Vander’s mouth. Shame didn’t exist. Just this. Just this, this, this. Tension built, something inside me ready to snap.
“I can’t—” I gasped, my fingers tight in Vander’s hair. “I need—”
“Take it,” Lorcan ordered. “Take what you need.”
The orgasm slammed into me, stretching my mouth on a silent scream. Pleasure coursed through me in searing waves. My fingers twisted in Vander’s hair. It must have hurt, but I couldn’t bring myself to care as I flew into a million pieces.
He didn’t seem to care, either, his growls lifting around me as he sucked and nipped my clit. Just as I grew too sensitive, he pressed a final kiss to my heated flesh and drew back.
I panted in Lorcan’s arms, my body boneless and my skirts bunched up around my waist. Tremors rippled through me as I fluttered down from my release.
I’d lost a slipper, and one of the ribbons holding my stocking in place had come undone.
Vander swiped a hand over his glistening mouth.
Then he tied the ribbon, his callused fingers rasping against the silk.
When he finished, he patted the bow, his auburn lashes sweeping up as he met my stare.
Awareness returned like cold water splashing my face. The knight I’d drained slumped on his side a dozen feet away, his cloak spread around him like blood. His body was still, his skin already turning gray. My ruined drawers lay beside him, the lace ripped from Vander’s rough treatment.
Lorcan stood, pulling me to my feet in one graceful movement. My skirts rustled as they swept down my legs. Lorcan moved around me, his eyes on Vander.
They faced off, and a different kind of awareness stole over me. Tension arced between them, something bristling in the air. It was like a language I didn’t speak, the words more mysterious and elusive than the vor scapa .
In one of his blurry movements, Lorcan grasped Vander’s jaw.
I sucked in a breath as the tension stretched more tautly.
But the men didn’t appear to notice me. Vander’s eyes were hooded as he stared down at Lorcan.
Any other time, I would have picked Vander to emerge victorious in a contest between them.
But now, Vander seemed almost small, his superior height and bulk shrinking against the cold authority that radiated off Lorcan.
“You tasted her,” Lorcan said, the words almost too low to catch. But they reached me, stealing another breath as my face caught fire.
Vander’s reply was just as quiet. “You told me to.”
A charge built in the air. I didn’t move. Didn’t dare breathe as I waited for something to happen.
“I did,” Lorcan said, then yanked Vander into a kiss.
It was rough and primitive, their powerful jaws working against each other in a sort of battle.
Vander gripped Lorcan’s shoulder. Lorcan moved his hand to the side of Vander’s neck.
He palmed it, his long fingers kneading Vander’s throat.
Their chests brushed. The wet sound of their tongues clashing joined the rasp of their stubble.
I drank them in, the knowledge that Lorcan tasted me on Vander’s tongue rousing a new ache between my legs.
As quickly as it began, the kiss ended. Lorcan stepped back, and the tension bled from the air.
“We need to deal with the body,” Lorcan said, as if he hadn’t just stuck his tongue down Vander’s throat.
Vander nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
“How?” I asked, my voice emerging as a croak.
Vander’s expression shuttered. “A lot of people die in this castle, Princess. The kitchen furnace is hot enough to turn bones to ash.”
My gut churned, every dinner I’d eaten since I entered the Drakhold running through my mind.
Vander stepped over the feygeld, scooped the body from the floor, and flung the knight over his shoulder like the man was a sack of potatoes instead of a towering vampire in full armor.
“It’s an hour past midnight,” Lorcan said, pulling my attention back to him. “The castle sleeps. You should, too.”
I wrapped my arms around my midsection. “What will you do?”
“The same.” He bent and gathered the feygeld from the floor, quickly stuffing the crystals in his pocket.
When he finished, he strode to the balcony, the glomarid wings fluttering behind him.
He slipped through the doors and then he was gone, nothing but a slight breeze indicating he’d been in the chamber at all.
For a second, I could only stare after him, confusion swirling in my head. He’d just…left. He’d held me as I came, kissed my arousal from Vander’s lips, and then jumped off the balcony like the first two things never happened.
A scuffling sound made me turn. Vander watched me, his arm wrapped around the dead knight’s legs. My bewilderment must have shown on my face because he nodded toward the balcony before offering an apologetic smile.
“He’s Drachvi.”
I drew an uneven breath.
Vander came to me, the dead knight’s cloak sweeping the floor. Vander’s silver eyes roamed my face before he tucked a knuckle under my chin. “Get some rest, Corinthe. The three of us will speak tomorrow. Things always tend to make more sense in the sunlight.”
“Nocta’s sun is always hidden,” I said.
Vander’s eyes softened, and the ghost of a smile touched his lips. “Wise and beautiful. I should have known you’d devastate me.”
He turned and left, moving almost as swiftly as Lorcan had, despite the dead knight’s weight. For a long time after the door closed behind him, I didn’t move. I stayed put, moonlight puddled at my feet.
You tasted her.
You told me to.
And Vander always followed orders. He kept his promises. It was one of the first things he’d told me… I’m almost as stubborn as you, and I’m willing to wait until you realize I never make promises I can’t keep.
I touched my lips, which were swollen from Lorcan’s kisses.
Vander’s kisses still lingered between my legs.
Everything had changed—or maybe the night had simply nudged me closer to the edge of the cliff.
I’d killed again. I’d come apart between two men as different as day and night.
And somewhere in the forest, Daryn carried my message to an alpha werewolf who might be the key to raising an army of my own.
Are you a tool or a blade?
I went to the washbasin, catching my reflection in the mirror as I passed. My lips were red, and my hair was as tangled as my thoughts. Stripping off my clothes, I washed the traces of passion from my body. When I straightened, my face stared back at me from the water.
“A blade,” I told it.