Chapter 36 Katarina
As soon as the world stopped whirling, I crashed to my knees and tried not to throw up. My legs stung as they hit the hard rock floor, but that pain helped me push the bile back down where it belonged. At least for a few more moments.
Blaise made some kind of noise as he recovered from…well, whatever had just happened to us. I couldn’t see him since this room was quite dark and smelled like a damp basement. Oh shit, were we in a basement? Where the hell were we?
“This your place?” Farah asked, her heels clicking on the stone floor.
At first, I thought she was talking to me, which was ridiculous because I didn’t own a basement. I didn’t own anything. But when I heard Blaise’s shoes scuffing the ground as he stood, my brain refocused in time to realize she was talking to him.
“Yes,” he grumbled.
“Well, I love what you did with it.” I didn’t miss my grandmother’s patronizing tone and neither did Blaise if his low growl was any indication.
“It’s a work in progress.”
“I’ll say.”
Curiosity got the best of me, so I tried to observe my surroundings.
Rock floors cut from large slabs of stone.
A dampness that held a hint of mossy moisture yet didn’t smell quite as bad as an old basement.
And there, up to my left, was a single arched window letting in a ray of light once Farah pulled the curtains to the side.
That light penetrated through the darkness and shined down on a king-size four-poster bed.
What the hell? Where were we?
Blaise shuffled over to me and gently grabbed my arms to help lift me to my feet. “You okay?” he asked, examining my face with his haunting eyes and running his hands over my arms.
Damn. Those stupid tingles were back. “Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “I think so. What happened?”
“I—”
Farah cut off his explanation. “I brought you to the only place he’s willing to lose control.” She slapped her hand against something metal, and my mouth dropped in surprise as I realized what she was holding.
“Are those chains? And…handcuffs?”
Blaise let out a sigh and buried his face in his hands while I watched Farah’s feral smile grow. “And a whole menagerie of toys your half-breed likes to use.”
I spun around so fast I almost fell over. “Blaise?” I asked, grateful for the low light so he couldn’t see my blushing cheeks.
He kept his hands on his face but shook his head. “It’s not what you think, Katarina.”
“Sure it is,” Farah interjected. She picked up a stick with something that looked like a leather feather on the end.
It reminded me of a riding crop. Actually, I think it was a riding crop.
Waving it in the air a few times, she assessed the toy with scrutiny.
“I told you he was dark, Katarina. And I told you this one has a hard time letting go of control.”
Blaise groaned again, and I finally understood.
“Wait! You use that on…on women?” I asked him.
Farah laughed at the same time his eyes flew open and found mine. “No, Katarina. I would never—”
“Not unless they ask, right?” Farah taunted him.
“Why are you still here?” he snapped at her.
“Watch your tongue, half-breed. You were the one who summoned me. You want Katarina to help you shift? This is how you’re going to let her in.”
“I don’t understand,” I muttered, suddenly wondering why my heart pounded in my chest despite not feeling so scared anymore.
“You will,” my grandmother said as she sauntered to Blaise. “Come,” she demanded.
He shook his head, ground his jaw together, and glanced at me. “I can’t.”
“You can,” Farah said as she grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him toward the little sex toy chamber in the alcove near the window.
“Wait,” I interrupted, so many thoughts running through my head. “Where are we?”
“Want to tell her?” Farah cooed as she unhooked Blaise’s crumpled black shirt one button at a time.
“My estate,” he muttered, eyes focused on Farah.
“Where?” I asked.
“Scotland.”
“What? We’re in Scotland? How the hell did we get here?”
Farah let out a long sigh while she ran her hands over Blaise’s chest. His back was facing me, so I couldn’t see his face as she caressed him. But she could see mine, and I was pretty sure my jealousy was written all over it, especially with the knowing smile she gave me. “Come here, Katarina.”
I did as she commanded, my feet having a mind of their own as they walked closer toward the two of them.
Blaise hadn’t moved. Like he was frozen under her spell, he stood perfectly still and allowed my grandmother to touch him.
Okay, this was weird. I mentally blocked the fact that she was my grandmother and instead tried to focus on the fact that she was a sex demon. This was what she did.
That didn’t really help either.
“Do you know why we have so much power, Katarina?” She started sliding her hands underneath Blaise’s shirt until she was able to slowly push the fabric down over his shoulders.
“Because you’re a demon?” I answered with a shaky voice.
“No, dear. I mean us. Women.”
I shrugged. “Vaginas?”
Farah laughed so loudly the sound echoed throughout the stone-walled bedroom. Wait, were we in a castle? Question for another time.
She removed Blaise’s shirt as he stood there in silence, and I let out a gasp when I saw his bare back for the very first time. It was covered in scars… like someone had been beating him for decades.
“Blaise, what happened?”
Farah ignored my response and clasped the cuffs around each of his wrists as he hung his head and refused to speak to me. She moseyed over to the wall and yanked on the chains until Blaise’s arms were lifted over his head like he was about to be drawn and quartered.
“What are you doing?” I asked her in a panic.
“Whatever he wants me to do,” she cooed, and I suddenly got it.
A succubus would know everyone’s sexual desires.
That’s what they were made to do. I’d done some research earlier today while in the library.
Not the kind Blaise was hoping for, but it helped me learn a little more about my heritage.
Would I have the same ability to pull out the deepest, darkest thoughts from a man like Farah could?
I doubted it. But somewhere in my cells was DNA that came from her bloodline.
So somewhere in my newly sexualized self, I might be able to tap into that.
To help Blaise.
Of course.
“Tell Katarina what you want,” Farah whispered in Blaise’s ear.
He simply groaned and shook his head. I immediately felt the pain of his rejection shoot through my heart. It slowly started to crack as the silence ticked by and he refused to tell me what he wanted.
Tears stung at my eyes. “He doesn’t want…” I could barely speak. “He doesn’t want me to.”
Farah walked toward me but turned around at the last second so she was facing Blaise’s back.
In a move so quick I barely saw it happen, she lifted the riding crop and slapped it across his bare skin.
My sharp intake of breath was overpowered by Blaise’s cry of…
of pleasure. He lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling, letting his knees bend so that he was putting more pressure on his cuffed wrists.
Farah glanced at me and winked.
Then she hit him again.
Blaise’s body twitched when the leather met his scars, but the sound that escaped his lips had me tingling inside again. I squeezed my thighs together and wondered why I enjoyed that sound so much.
Farah laughed and passed the riding crop to me. “He needs to relinquish control, Katarina. It’s the only way you can get inside of him and release the curse that’s been holding him back.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” I pleaded with her.
She simply squeezed my shoulder and winked at me. “You will. He’ll teach you. And then when he’s at his most vulnerable, call his dragon out.”
Really? Kinky sex with Blaise is what would release his dragon? I shook my head, pondering how much my life had changed in the past several weeks.
“I’ll return your dog in a bit,” my grandmother said a second before disappearing in a haze of black fog. I watched the spot she’d vanished from until the last wisp of smoke sank into the stone. This was my life now?
“Katarina?” Blaise’s voice shook with fear. Or something else.
I walked around him until I ducked under his arm and stood before his face. His muscled chest glistened in the limited light, dark shadows highlighting every single twitch of them. And holy hell, he had that “V” on his abdomen that pointed toward all the goodness that resided under his pants.
When he saw me ogling him, he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I never told you,” he whispered.
“You mean that you owned a castle in Scotland? Yeah, that is definitely something you should have mentioned.” I put my hands on my hips and tapped my toe to make it seem like I was upset. Really, I just had to do something to hide the sound of my racing heart.
Blaise smiled down at me and something inside my bones melted. Here he was, hanging from a ceiling, being beaten by a demon while she exposed his darkest secrets, and he could still smile. At me.
I stepped forward, lifted my head, and pressed a gentle kiss against his lips. His dark hair fell forward over his face, and I gently pushed it away. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
He huffed a laugh and leaned over until our foreheads were touching. “This…room. It’s something I keep private.”
“I get it.”
“Do you?”
I made a point of kissing him again. “I do, Blaise. And if you want to see what we can do to help release your dragon, I will do anything you want.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again, pressing his lips into a thin line. “It’s not for everyone—”
“I’m willing to try,” I assured him. “I mean, you’re going to have to teach me, but I think you’ll find I’m a pretty eager student.”
He laughed for real this time. I think it was the first time I saw a genuine laugh come out of his mouth. That mouth with the pouty lips that looked so delicious right now.
“Katarina?” he interrupted my dirty thoughts.
“Yes?”
“If we’re going to do this, I need you to take off your clothes.”