Chapter Nineteen #2
The demon who’d touched her blinked, momentarily taken aback, before bursting into laughter. “You sure know how to bruise a man’s ego, Mari.” The others around him jeered, clapping the man on the back and giving him a hard time.
Aurelie’s heart squeezed. This place reminded her of the knights’ tavern, though there were certain differences that made it impossible to forget where she was.
In the darkest corner of the room, several lustborn were entwined in a tangle of limbs, their lustrous bodies pressed together as they kissed with an almost feral intensity.
They were oblivious to the room around them, lost in their own shared heat, and the sight was as mesmerizing as it was unnerving.
Their movements were slow and languid, yet charged with something wild—like watching a storm unfold beneath silk.
Aurelie had never dreamed of seeing such a display, and yet she found herself unable to look away.
“I see you’ve found the lustborn,” Severin mused as he followed her stare. “We don’t have many in this village. Get too many of them together and things can get a little … messy.”
“Do you ever join them?” Aurelie asked, surprised again when the words slipped from her without restraint. What was going on with her?
“I’ve participated before, though it’s all a bit sticky for my taste.” Severin didn’t glance up to see her blush as Mari brought three chalices of wine and set them on the table. Lute picked hers up, taking a deep gulp while Severin swirled the drink, scenting it before taking a sip.
It was strange, the effect that first taste had on Aurelie. She hadn’t even been the one to take it, and still she felt a pleasant warmth settle in her stomach. It relaxed Severin so much that Aurelie, too, felt herself easing despite her environment.
A new performer had taken the stage. It was another lustborn, this one with soft pink skin and a curvaceous body sculpted to entice.
She was beautiful, and made even more so by the intense rush of desire that surged through Aurelie as she watched the demon strum her harp.
She felt a sudden interest in those delicate hands, and a curiosity about what else they might be able to pluck.
Such urges did not belong to her, but to Severin, who was watching the lustborn with a gleam of hunger.
“Is that your partner?” she asked, sipping from her own chalice to distract herself from the heat of Severin’s desire.
“I don’t keep partners.” There was something dark in his voice, but before either of them had the chance to linger on it, his eyes slid back to the trio of lustborn in the corner. “They’d likely be open to having you if you feel like experimenting.”
Aurelie choked, spitting wine onto his tunic.
Severin pushed back from the table, dabbing at the fabric with a groan. “Must you soil all of my clothes, woman? It was only a suggestion.”
Heat curled through her, and she loathed the way her thoughts betrayed her. She thought of Severin caging her against the wall, the way his bare chest had felt so warm against her, his leg between hers …
As if able to sense the direction of her thoughts, Severin turned the full weight of his curiosity upon her. “I take it you’ve never been with anyone before?”
Light, the tavern was sweltering. She plucked a napkin from the table, using it to fan herself. “All my life I’ve been expected to bond with an angel. Do you think I would have risked that?”
Lute drew another long sip. “They’re so good at their manipulation that you don’t even realize you’re being controlled.”
“A true shame,” he agreed.
Aurelie’s anger flared so hot she didn’t notice her voice rising. “It’s not as though I never had someone I could have done those things with, or that I never thought about it. It was just never the right option. Not to mention the risk of bearing a child before I was bonded—”
Severin scoffed. “Children. Why is sex always about children for you people?” He finished his glass of wine, then waved a hand to Mari for another. “Do you have someone waiting for you back in Rhovar?”
Her mouth went dry as she thought of Nicolas. “There’s someone I’m expected to marry, but it’s complicated.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Because I cut off his hand.”
Severin set his chalice down with a hearty, surprised laugh. “You really are feral. I knew I had a good feeling about you.”
Aurelie drank from her chalice to distract herself from Severin’s amusement, only to pull back in surprise. “I’ve had this before. This wine is one of my favorites.”
Severin smiled. “As it should be. It’s one of the best I’ve ever made.”
Aurelie blinked at him, certain she’d heard incorrectly. “Surely you mean you procured it?”
“I mean what I said, Badger. The vineyard, the trade, the entire operation. It’s all mine.”
She stared, momentarily speechless. “You run a wine guild?”
“I run the wine guild,” Severin corrected. “From your celebrations, to the taverns … Most of what you’ve tasted in Rhovar comes from yours truly. With the help of my good friends, of course.” He motioned to the rest of the tavern.
After everything she’d learned since arriving in Veritas, Aurelie couldn’t say why this shocked her the most. Just how much of Rhovar’s daily life did these demons touch?
“Why wine?” she asked, taking another sip despite herself. It really was incredible. “Out of all the trades, why choose winemaking?”
“It suited my needs.” He swirled his chalice lazily, focus straying back to the stage every so often. “Everyone wants wine, even you holy folk. I have the right palate for it, and you can’t beat the money.”
Mari returned with their meals. Aurelie mumbled her thanks, inspecting the meat carefully.
“It’s venison,” Severin muttered. “We do eat normal food, you know.”
“You probably eat people, too.” She prodded the meat with a fork, taking a tentative bite just to be sure.
“Only if they’ve got enough fat and are cooked to tender.”
The tune onstage shifted, growing more delicate, and Aurelie’s attention was drawn back to the performing lustborn. The demon’s fingers caressed the strings of her harp one last time, and as if she could sense Severin’s stare, her attention fell to him as she exited the stage.
Severin greeted her with the widest grin Aurelie had ever seen. Again, she saw the gleam in his eyes and felt the pulse of desire stirring within him. Her skin grew clammy, but even if Severin sensed her embarrassment, he paid Aurelie no heed.
“Excellent as always, Melisandre,” he told the other demon, arms winding around her waist as if they’d settled there a million times before.
He pulled her down and onto his lap, where Melisandre fell with a delighted giggle.
Aurelie had never heard a demon giggle, nor did she ever care to again.
She jabbed her fork into the venison, taking a large bite as Melisandre wound her arms around Severin’s neck as if Aurelie were nothing more than an ornament at the table.
“My favorite patron,” Melisandre teased.
It didn’t go unnoticed that she pressed her breasts purposefully against Severin as she leaned in to hug him.
Severin curled one hand around her waist, the other still cradling his chalice.
Aurelie could practically taste the sticky sweetness of his satisfaction, her blood alight with it.
“When are we going to get you back onstage, Severin?” she asked, drawing a teasing finger down the length of his chest. A few of the demons nearby grunted their agreement, but Severin only smirked as he drew another sip of wine.
“How could I ever compete with a siren like you?”
“You’re a performer?” Aurelie asked her bonded, made abundantly aware of just how little her presence was wanted as both he and Melisandre turned to blink at Aurelie as if they’d forgotten she was there.
“He’s far more than a performer,” Melisandre sneered, shifting in his lap. “Show the girl, Sev.”
“Perhaps another time,” he said. “One where I’m less incentivized to stay in this seat.”
Melisandre pouted, though amusement glimmered in her eyes as she leaned in to whisper something that made desire flare within Aurelie, so potent she nearly choked on her meal.
She forced her expression into disinterest, chewing on the venison while she tried desperately to ignore the lust that was making her throat thick.
The barmaid returned, leaning over to refill their wine. Her hip brushed the edge of the table as she leaned in to reach for Lute’s empty drink, and the movement knocked it from the table.
Lute’s shadows stretched to wind around the chalice at the same time Aurelie reached down for it on instinct. She realized her mistake too late as air bit the back of her neck. The motion had caused her hood to slip, white hair tumbling free.
“Apologies,” Mari said. “I swear we keep pushing these tables closer—” Her words cut off when she caught sight of the pale strands.
Severin moved first, quick as a viper. His hand shot across the table, seizing the fallen hood and yanking it back over Aurelie’s head. Lute, too, had her shadows coiling up like smoke, curling protectively around Aurelie’s form.
“That’ll be all, Mari.” Severin’s voice left no room for argument as his eyes locked onto the barmaid. She swallowed, a sheen of sweat along her brow as she ducked away with a nod and hurried to the next table.
Melisandre, too, had gone still. The lustborn’s gaze sharpened, reminding Aurelie of the way a cat watched its prey before pouncing.
Severin’s arm snaked around Melisandre’s waist, his fingers clamping down on her thigh so hard that she twitched.
“It’s getting a bit loud here, don’t you think?
” His free hand lifted to take her chin, turning her attention toward him.
“Why don’t you and I head to your place?
Lute?” He nodded his head a fraction of an inch toward Aurelie, and the envyborn took Aurelie by the wrist.
“Come with me,” she hissed, swathing Aurelie in darkness as she pushed from the table. “If you want to live, I suggest you keep close.”