19. ~Vorzyr~ #2
And then I snagged Kai’s arm and dragged him outside into the drab basement hallway, lit only by a single creepy and barely functioning lightbulb.
“What was that for?” he asked, stumbling back as I released him with more force than I’d meant to, because of how worked up I was.
“We both just need to take a beat.”
My phone started buzzing yet again.
“What is that incessant vibrating?” Kai demanded.
I patted the back pocket of my pants. “My phone.”
“Yeah, I got that much. But why? Who’s texting you so much?”
“It’s Ariana wanting to get together to talk.”
At the mention of her, some of the darkness in his eyes retreated.
Honestly, it actually had mine feeling a little lighter, too, at just the thought of her.
But it wouldn’t last long. In moments, it would be replaced with that primal urge to have her, to unleash all over her, and— stop!
It had been going on for several days now and the more I tried to get a handle on it, the more I motherfucking failed.
“Hmm.”
“Would you know anything about that?” I asked him.
“Sounds like it’s between the two of you.”
I smiled, seeing through his bullshit. “Thank you, Kai.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It was nothing.”
“It was actually something huge. Especially with how you feel about her.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s become clear to me that this thing… pulling her close… it can only happen with the four of us together. Because of our power sets, our personalities, our temperaments, and our individual issues… it can’t actually work without us all coming together.”
“I like it. And I agree with your assessment. Pairing off won’t work. One of us with her won’t work.”
“There needs to be a balance, especially where her power and issues are concerned. That can be achieved by the three of us. Plus, she’s definitely into the foursome concept.”
“We’re irresistible to her, huh?”
“Something like that. Not that we’re above that either.”
I looked him up and down, and he smirked when he caught it, liking it a whole lot. “No, we’re certainly not.”
“Still thinking over my offer?” he asked, stepping up to me.
“And what offer might that be?”
That smirk of his spread wide. “Careful. If you want me to spell it out, I will. In graphic fucking detail. So much dirty detail that it’ll get your beautiful, ribbed cock as hard as fucking steel.”
I sucked in a breath at the intensity now flaring between us.
I stepped into him, my hard chest pressing against his.
Once again, I felt the primal part of me rising up all too quickly, all too uncontrollably.
I forced myself to step back, and I shoved a hand through my hair. “Motherfucker.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ve barely been in classes, you’ve been tense, and you’ve been extremely gung-ho about this punishment we’re dealing out—the only way I’ve managed to get you out of your room, since I got better, actually.
And the dead giveaway? You haven’t connected with Ariana yet, despite her trying to seek you out. ”
“She told you that?”
“No, she told Nyx. He’s more… emotionally available… consistently.” He frowned. “Is this about what happened between the three of us the other day? You scented it?”
“Only the tail end, I was lingering in the dreamwalking. Nyx let me stay there by myself for a while. He put a time-delay on it, so I could be pulled out later, but without him needing to stay behind to do it, as he was anxious to check on you.”
“And?”
“ And I’m actually glad that happened between the three of you.
It’s bringing Ariana closer to you—and all of us, by extension.
And I’m also glad that I wasn’t a part of it at that time.
I’m not…” I shoved a hand through my hair.
“Ever since I did that strange magic to spare you… Primal Celestial Resonance, you told me Ariana called it, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Ever since then, the primal, animal part of me has been on overload. It’s been difficult to control.
Even coming close to you today, it’s taken a great deal of effort for me not to allow it to lead the way, and for me not to unleash all over you.
” I gestured at the basement door. “Doing this , this violence and punishment, is helping to tether me, to help me sublimate.”
“Okay, let me help you. I can test you. We can bring Ariana in and—”
“Not her.”
“The one person you’ve been obsessed with and had your sights set on, and you don’t want her help?”
“I could hurt her. I slept with her. I was inside her. It was akin to staking a claim to me. The only thing missing was an official claiming bite, but I did cut her and taste her blood, so it’s still left a deep impact on me. She calls to that primal side of me in a major way, Kai.”
“All right, I get it. I do. But you also need to understand that you can’t actually hurt her. This is Ariana Martel we’re talking about.”
“We don’t know that still holds true anymore. Not with that ability that I manifested to save you. And… there’s other stuff, too.”
“Other abilities, yes, I figured.”
“You did?”
“Of course, and—”
“You can’t keep me down for long, sorcerer! Release me at once!”
We both stilled at the sound of Sorin’s voice coming from the basement.
Infuriating motherfucking timing for him to rouse awake.
I pounded my fist into my hand. “Let’s sort this shithead.”
Kai gestured at the door. “After you.”
I stalked back inside, with Kai following, and locking the door with a flick of his magic.
And there Sorin was, struggling in his binds, and looking either side of him at the two vamps passed out in their chairs.
“This is pointless,” Sorin said, eyeing us.
“Do you have any idea how much magical might it will take to bind a Dark Fae of my caliber, with my bloodline, for a longer stretch of time?” He scoffed.
“You’ll drain yourself, Kai. And that’s your only move against me, the only way to keep your Incubus pet safe is me without access to my power.
Because I won’t stop. I won’t stop with any of this.
” He gestured at his vampires. “ They might have been persuaded. They fear your power—and they also balk in the presence of dragon kind. But not while my influential mind-meddling serves to transcend that.”
Kai eyed me knowingly. Sorin didn’t know that Kai had the ability to resist magical mind-meddling himself, nor that it very likely meant he also had the means to engineer a solution to break Jace and Drake from Sorin’s thrall as well.
“But even if that happened and I lost them as my acolytes, there will always be others I can influence, others I may not even need to influence, because you can’t comprehend the extend of the revulsion that has spread throughout the supernatural community toward half-breeds lately.
The Unity Council has even been working with Puritas in their desperate bid to seek out Chimera Circle and finally end those maniacs and stop their creation of yet more disgusting half-breed beings.
Where the Guardian Movement has failed, it has created an underhanded alliance between the Unity Council and those whom I serve, whom I believe in.
” His eyes gleamed with sadism. “The blood of half-breeds will flow. It’ll soak the earth, and Puritas won’t stop until every last one of them is put down, until their sullying presence no longer weighs on the supernatural world. ”
Kai and I snarled at the same time.
And then I was charging at Sorin, just as Kai was also calling his power.
But neither of us connected with our target.
A blast of silver power shot through the room and radiated out, blowing Kai and I back across the space.
I heard Kai grunt as he slammed into the brick wall, then ricocheted off it and landed hard on his back.
Being dragon, it didn’t faze me as much, and I was able to absorb it, then go to him quickly and help him back to his feet.
He stumbled and choked.
And then we looked out to see the source of the intervening immense blast.
There Ariana was, standing between us and the three chairs binding our captives, her magic radiating out all around her.
She glared at us as she retracted her magic, then folded her arms across her brown suede jacket, cocking her hip in her bootcut jeans, and definitely looking none too happy.
“Fuck,” Kai rasped. “Give a man some warning before you tear through his ward so brutally.”
“You left me little choice.”
I eyed Kai. “I thought you said you cloaked us.”
“I did.”
“But in his attempt to keep it off my radar, he used traces of my magic that he stole at my party that night. I was able to latch onto it and access beyond the cloaking.”
“There shouldn’t have been a reason for you needing to do that, to track us down,” Kai told her.
“You were holed up in the library studying all night along with Nyx who’s reading up on all matters Guardian Movement to prepare for his upcoming apprenticeship with Warlow.
” He stepped forward, trying to hide his wince from the effort because of the toll her blasting against his magic like that had clearly taken on him.
“Unless, of course, you missed me that much, Ari.”
“Don’t even try it, Kai,” she said, holding up her hand.
“Nyx felt you. He reached out with his Incubus senses to check in on you like he usually does, and what he felt nearly overwhelmed him. The need to punish. Unadulterated hatred. The intent to do severe and long-lasting damage. So much fury. Even the destabilization of your magic. You, Kai. It’s unheard of for somebody as in control as you. ”
“Ariana, listen—” I started.
She cut me off. “ And murderous intent.” She looked between us, shaking her head. “What were the two of you thinking?”
“We were dealing out justice.”
“Torture isn’t justice.”
“It will be when I inflict the same upon them,” Sorin spoke up, darkly amused by the scene, and the formidable forces of Kai and I being reprimanded.
Ariana threw out her hand, and with a spark of her magic, Sorin’s mouth clamped shut.
“Nyx didn’t want this,” she told us.