The third person Jin introduced as Raven and she was clinging to Gautier’s arm in a way that was nervous, and yet very sexual. She was a thin woman with black hair, pinched features, and darting, bloodshot gray eyes. She was also a shifter and, like Jan, had a desperate, needy sort of air about her—which made me wonder if she was another victim in the making.
Then her scent triggered the memory of the club and that odd smell coming from the second room, a smell that had been a little bit of desperation, and a lot of death.
It
had
been Gautier in that room. And this woman had been with him.
Becoming the death head hadn’t only given him an immunity to sunlight, it had given him sex. Dark, deadly sex.
The thought made me want to puke.
Jin touched my back lightly, dragging me out of my thoughts and fears, then moved off to fetch our drinks, leaving me to make small talk with people I had no intention of ever getting to know better. All the while, Gautier watched me like a spider, saying nothing, merely smiling that cold, venomous smile of his. Every instinct I had was screaming to get out, while I still could.
But Gautier wouldn’t let me go. I knew that. Whatever game he was playing, I was caught in the middle of it, and I had no choice but to let the night roll on and see what happened. See what he planned.
When Jin slipped the red wine into my hand, I practically gulped down the first couple of mouthfuls. It didn’t do a whole lot to ease the tension slithering through my limbs, but at least it was wet and soothed the dryness in my throat.
After about five minutes of inane banter about the weather and whatnot, a small gong went off behind us. As we turned around, the candles sprung to life, flickering warm light across all the crystal and silverware, and sending shards of rainbow light spiraling across the room.
Kingsley now stood at the end of the table, a king surveying his subjects. His gaze met mine and lingered, making my heart skip, then race, even harder. Worst thing was, I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was due to fear, or something else. Something that had a whole lot more to do with wanting a treat that was obviously very bad for me.
“Jin, you and the lovely Riley can sit at the head of the table with me tonight.”
He said it like it was granting a great gift, and indeed, that’s how Jin seemed to take it. His smile was wide as he escorted me to the chair on Kingsley’s immediate right. I thanked Jin as he pulled out the chair and seated me, then placed my purse on the table, casually sticking another device to my fingertip and dropping my hands. Which were shaking. Because Gautier was still watching and still saying nothing. I placed the second device under my chair and hoped like hell it still worked with the magic barrier in place.
The camera—which looked to be nothing more than a slightly larger flat silver bead on my glittery purse—needed to be placed higher, and that, for now, was impossible.
Kingsley picked up the nearby bottle of wine and filled my glass. Then he picked up his own and raised it.
“To new friends and good times,” he said, lightly clicking his glass against mine, and then Jin’s.
“And a long night of passion and desire,” Jin added, his gaze holding an intensity that had little flash fires dancing up and down my spine despite the deep fear that resided within.
Yet the heat Jin raised was nothing compared to the closeness of his dark master. Sitting next to Kingsley was like sitting close to a wolf with his aura set to full intensity. It made me sweat, made me want, like never before.
Had he been another wolf, I would have simply used my own aura to mute the force of his. But how did you mute the force of a dark god? Especially when he was wearing the skin of a human? I couldn’t even
use
my aura, because no one here but Gautier knew I was wolf—and I very much intended to keep it that way.
If Gautier would let me.
The meals came, brought into the room by women who moved with the silence of ghosts and who looked just as pale. Not that they
were
ghosts—with my growing affinity to the dead, I would have felt that—but all the same, there seemed to be very little life in their eyes or expressions. Perhaps Kingsley had sucked all the energy and life from them.
Everyone but Gautier ate, drank, and made more small talk as the plates of food came and went. Jin was right in one thing—the food here was amazing.
As the night wore on, my head grew sort of fuzzy, in that warm, had-too-much-to-drink-and-now-way-too-loose sort of way. I actually stopped drinking wine after the entrée, but my head didn’t get any clearer. It felt odd, like I was there but not there. A watcher standing outside my own body, aware of events but not really a part of them. Even the fear of Gautier and what he was up to seemed to slide away.
Somewhere deep inside, alarm grew, but I didn’t even have the energy to wrest it to the foreground for a thorough examination. It was just too much hassle. Everything was too much hassle, except sitting here enjoying.
Dessert—a mass of fudgy chocolate cake that was almost as good as an orgasm—came and went, then coffee was served. It wasn’t hazelnut, but it was top shelf and absolutely divine.
Which left us with the after-dinner entertainment. Kingsley stood once the last of the coffee cups had been collected by the pale women, and the tension I’d felt earlier leapt back into the warm room. But it was accompanied by hot spots of fear, desire, and excitement—the fear and desire Jan’s, the excitement belonging to Jin, Marcus, and the thin shifter. Gautier was as inscrutable as ever, and yet there was a gleam in his eyes that had distant shivers dancing up my spine.
“Shall we move on to the main entertainment?”
“Oh, please do,” Jan said, her voice breathy with excitement.
Marcus gave her a hug, and my stomach stirred. Maybe eating all that chocolate cake was a bad idea. Not if the entertainment was what I was beginning to think it was.
Kingsley walked across the room to a second set of doors I hadn’t noticed before now and pushed them open. The room beyond, like this one, was ill lit, but filled with looming shadows and the sharp smell of blood and fear and death.
Jin held out his hand as Kingsley disappeared into gloom. My hesitation was brief, but nevertheless there, and part of me was mighty glad of that. At least it meant I wasn’t so far gone that I’d walk into trouble without thought, without fear. Not that either would do a whole lot at this point in time.
Two by two, we walked into the room. A light clicked on down the far end, throwing pale light across the darkly stained wooden machinery filling the room. It was another goddamn torture chamber. Like before, there were rough wooden racks, chains attached to cuffs dangling from the ceiling, a huge wooden wheel straddling a deep water trough, and rough ropes attached to wall rings. But there were other machines here, truly nasty-looking ones, like metal chambers filled with spikes and other, even more deadly-looking things.
This time, I stared at them with a more dispassionate eye. Horror was there, but it was a distant thing, held back by a wall of detachment. It was odd, this feeling of being here and yet not here, and yet part of me was glad. If not for the distance, I might have been tempted to run screaming from the room.
Or would I? Truth was, I wanted to do my job. Wanted these freaks stopped for all eternity.
It was the only clear, unfuzzed thought in the whole foggy mess that was the current state of my brain.
Kingsley appeared out of the gloom. He’d taken off his dinner jacket and loosened his tie, and the lusty tension filling the room sharpened abruptly, hitting my senses like a hammer and making my knees weak.
Jin’s hands slipped around my waist, pulling me back against him. His breath was heated, rapid against my neck, his thick erection pressing hard into my butt.
Kingsley stopped in front of Jan, raising a hand and gently caressing her cheek. She shuddered under his touch, and the scent of desire and need swirled around us, sharp and tantalizing in the heavy air. My breathing quickened in response, and Jin’s soft chuckle stirred my hair.
“Soon,” he whispered. “Soon.”
“Do you understand the reason you are here?” Kingsley trailed a hand down Jan’s neck and began to undo her shirt.
She pushed into his hand, offering her small breasts to his touch and his gaze. “It’s a test,” she said.
“A test, not an end. Do you understand that?” He finished undoing her buttons, and pushed her shirt aside, exposing her breasts but not touching them himself.
“Yes,” she all but whimpered, her desperation for his caress very evident in her voice. But she didn’t move. I wondered vaguely what held her in place—fear, or something in Kingsley’s eyes? Something I couldn’t see from where I stood?
“Then choose your machine.”
Her gaze darted around the room, and came to rest on the smallest of the wooden machines. “The barrel. I choose the barrel.”
“Ah, a good choice.” Kingsley’s gaze shifted to Marcus. “You know what to do.”
The big man nodded, and led Jan across to the barrel that was lined with tiny wooden spikes. Gautier pulled Raven close to his body, and began playing with her breasts in a way that looked crude and painful. I gulped and forced my gaze away. I couldn’t handle a sexual Gautier. It just wasn’t right.
Kingsley walked across to where Jin and I stood. He stopped to our left, watching us rather than his so-called show. The thick, raw scent of him wrapped around us like a blanket, making me sweat, shake.
Want.
“Do you know what is about to happen?”
“Yes.” My answer was soft, breathy. Part of me hoped it was fear, but mostly I knew it was excitement.
“And are you aroused by the thought?”
“I’m aroused by Jin. Aroused by you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I think you lie.”
“No.”
“Then shall we watch and see?” His words held a touch of command, and I battled them instinctively.
“No.”
Amusement touched his lips. “You’re right, Jin. This one
is
strong. A very good choice indeed.”
“Thank you,” Jin said, as he slid his hands from my waist to my breasts to my shoulders.
A quiver of anticipation ran across my skin as he began to slide the straps down my shoulders.
“Watch,” Kingsley ordered, and this time I had no choice.
Jan had stripped and stretched her body across the barrel. Marcus had tied her limbs to rings set in the floor, stretching her arms and legs wide and pressing her stomach down against the tiny spikes. As yet, they hadn’t broken skin, because I couldn’t see or smell blood, but it obviously wouldn’t take much more pressure to do so.
Marcus began to strip, and even in my detached state, I could find nothing truly beautiful about him. He was just a man, all sinew and big bones, with a regular old dick. Not that I minded regular old dicks if the packaging around them was decent enough.
The sound of a hand slapping sharply against flesh made me jump a little. I blinked, and realized that somewhere along the line, Marcus had donned a leather glove on his right hand. From each gloved fingertip extended barbed strips of leather. As he slapped Jan’s back, the force of his blows pressed her stomach down against the spikes and the little strips lashed out, striking her shoulders with some force.
It wasn’t very long at all before her already scarred back became a raw and bloody mess, but her breaths were short, shuddery gasps of pleasure, and the air was thick and heavy with the scent of her blood and her need.
And it wasn’t only hers.
The sharp smell of Raven’s arousal spun through the air, filled with desperation and need. As much as it sickened me to think she was enjoying the show
and
Gautier, the scent only served to fuel my own to greater heights.
Jin’s fingertips slid down my arms, taking the dress straps with them, and the dress itself was soon a puddle of green silk at my feet. He took my purse and tossed it off to one side, then slid his fingers up my stomach and firmly grasped my engorged nipples. He pinched them, hard, and the jolt that ran through me was all pleasure. For a wolf in the midst of moon heat, any touch could be pleasurable. And right now, despite the situation, despite my odd detachment—or maybe because of it—I just wanted his caress, be it hard or soft.
“Watch,” Kingsley intoned, his voice seeming to echo, as if it had come from a very great distance.
Marcus was no longer just hitting her. He was between her legs and fucking her, thrusting hard and deep as she twisted, screamed, and, eventually, came. She went limp against the barrel, but the big man didn’t stop, pounding and pounding and pounding his body into hers.
And my muscles were jumping, my skin quivering, as if it was me down there, and I wanted, so wanted, the release that hovered so close and yet so far.
But then Marcus came and the quivering stopped, and it was all I could do not to scream in frustration.
Kingsley laughed softly. “I think this one is ready to do more than just watch.”
Jin was still pinching, still teasing. “Yes,” he said, his voice a husky drawl near my ear. “She’s more than ready.”
“Then prepare her.” He reached out, caressing my cheek. “Gautier, you may continue your pleasures with Raven on whatever machine you choose.”