Shadowfae (25 page)

Blood gushes under pressure, and Rajah’s skin rips open further on Dante’s tongue. Heat flushes Rajah’s neck, bright blood splashing the wall. His tendons jerk, useless. He can feel his skin cooling, his blood vessels constricting. He wants to scream, to warn Jade, but he can’t make a sound. His knees buckle, his muscles straining uselessly to hold him up, and his vision flashes with colored light like stars before fading to black.

D
ante collapses, panting, his back against the blood-spattered shower wall. Rajah’s blood still runs on his teeth, and he licks them, fragrant scarlet gushing down his chin to stain his wet shirt. His veins burn with bloodlust, his skin afire. His balls clench tight and heavy, his cock bursting. His gaze jerks inexorably downward, and his nostrils flare, dragging in the intoxicating salty flavor.

Rajahni has fainted, his beautiful naked body sprawled limp on the tiles. Wisps of steam caress his brown skin, black hair plastered to his elegant cheek. Scarlet-tinged water trickles onto the elongated muscles of his chest, over his sleek flank, down his shapely thighs, into the wet hair at his groin. The savage wound on the side of his neck exposes raw flesh, thick, salty blood dripping, pooling, congealing. . . .

Dante smacks his head back against the wall to distract himself, his skull smarting. Not really his thing. He’d much rather fuck her. Unless he can pin Rajahni down and feed him blood, force it down his throat, choke him with it. Come inside him and drain his life away once more, only to fill him again. Over and over, until there’s nothing left but infected vampire blood, and—surprise!—here’s irresistible hunger and eternal life, only it’s not so everlasting when some sadistic demon lord already owns your soul.

A vampire incubus, ha ha. Try your fucking glamour then. But there’s a better way to make the bastard suffer. To make Rajahni pay for taking what’s his.

Rajah’s memories hiss like a lunatic’s whispers in Dante’s mind, and his pulse throbs, glorious. Now Dante knows what it’s like to love her, worship her, surrender your heart to her.

Well, screw that. He’ll settle for fucking and eating. Not necessarily in that order. Maybe with a little subtle torture thrown in.

He wipes blood from his chin, steadies the shake in his hands with a few gulping breaths, and creeps like a shadow toward the bathroom door.

It opens without a creak, and there she lies, limp and slender in Rajahni’s bed, pale sheets draped across her hip. Her hair tangles on the pillow, her fingers slack by her cheek in slumber. Her small breasts gleam in the crack of bathroom light, and he recalls the clean taste of her nipple, her flesh springy in his mouth, her blood thick and hot in his throat.

He leans over her, inhaling the sweet stink of sex. He can smell what they’ve done, how she’s let Rajahni take her, how she’s taken him. Dante’s mouth waters, lubricating his teeth with slick spit. He wants to feel her come, scream, die, feel her rip apart in his mouth and bleed.

He savors her, sniffing her throat, her lips. Her breath whispers into him, slight and even. She’s so full, of satisfaction and oxygen-rich blood. His balls ache with lust. He could have her here, drink her, eat her, spread her mess over Rajahni’s bed, swallow her last heartbeat and leave her, raped and ravaged for Rajahni to find.

Or, he could make it hurt even more.

He grazes his fingertip on a wet fang and plinks a single glittering drop onto her damp bottom lip. “Jade,” he whispers.

She stirs, murmuring. Her lips part, and her tongue slides out, licking the blood into her mouth. “Mmm.” She sighs in her sleep, her body stretching in contentment. “More.”

Dante smiles. “Not yet, darlin’.”

19

I
opened my eyes, and nothing happened.

Cool air shrank my naked skin, raising bumps. I blinked. Blackness, indistinguishable from the inside of my eyelids. Was it that dark? Hell, maybe you really can go blind from screwing.

“Rajah?” My voice sounded flat, close. No answer.

I lifted my hand, and my knuckles cracked against something hard. What the hell?

I spread my fingers, a hand’s breadth above my face. Wood, flat and rough. Cold fear fingered my spine, and I splayed out my hands, searching. Splinters stuck in my fingertips, rough edges grazing my knuckles, clunking on my bangles, smacking into my elbows. A box.

A fucking box. My heart sprinted. I pushed upward, and the thing wouldn’t budge. I kicked up, sideways, down, and met more unmoving wood. Bruises stung my knees, my elbows, my ankle bones. Swift hunger clawed at my stomach lining, insatiable. Panic rose like wildfire in my throat, and I choked back a scream. Maybe I’d died and gone to hell, and this was Kane’s idea of fun.

A cackle rasped in my ears, hollow, and grasping fingers of malice squeezed my heart.
And now you know what it’s like.

My nerves prickled at that slimy, whispering voice. I fought to swallow, a frightened ache squeezing my breath away, and the weight of the word
eternity
suffocated me. I guess I never really thought it would happen. Not so soon. And now Kane had forever to torment me.

Not Kane, wildcat.
The cackle writhed out again like wet tentacles, gripping my stomach with sick mirth not my own.

My head throbbed in confusion, hunger tormenting me.
What?

I ate him. Well, I tried. Now he’s hiding. Not talking to me. Fucking demons.

I licked dry lips, incredulous.
Vorenus, are you still here?

Sweet, burning froth slithered up and down my throat, gagging me.
Trapped. Severed. Lost. Welcome to my hell.

Frigid horror stiffened my limbs, my mind gibbering. My throat parched. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out. I’d almost rather Kane than this. How did this happen? Why hadn’t my rapture chewed up what was left of him?

Luna’s fragment chuckled, cold.
Rajah’s quite a lover. You had energy to spare, so I took it.

I shuddered. I should have known. Normal people couldn’t survive being swallowed. But Luna wasn’t normal. The sorcerer had powers I’d only dreamed of when I was mortal. He’d cheated death for this long, and he still wasn’t giving up. Slimy disgust coated my mouth to think of him curled inside me while we loved, watching, consuming. . . .

No more than you deserved.
A hot fist of rage clutched my guts, shaking me. I retched, and his voice hissed thudding vengeance in my head.
Now where’s the rest of me?

Heavenly light blinded me, painfully bright, and metal squeaked as someone wrenched the box lid free. I squeezed my eyelids shut, tears brimming, and Luna snaked into a tight coil inside me, quivering like a death adder’s tail.

I forced my eyes open, squinting at first. Lightbulbs dazzling on metal claws, a distant ceiling of pressed lead, white paint peeling. The shadow of a face, flowing white hair, knotted in plaits with tiny flowers. Blue-veined skin, silvery eyes glittering, a familiar flicker of forked blue tongue. “Ooh, looky here. Bottle me confidence. Did you shine?”

I blinked, my head still spinning. The water sprite from Luna’s. I was in hell with a fairy drug dealer? I struggled to sit up, fought to speak, my croaky voice stinging my throat. “Where am I?”

“We.”

“I’m sorry?”

She laid a scratchy blue hand on my chest to push me back down, her froggy fingers too dry on my skin. I realized I was naked, and that she was still sick. Her skin peeled like week-old sunburn, her blue lips pale and parched. “Where are we, child. There’s more than one of you. I see twinny, curled like a liver-worm. Sweet thing, too. Pretty hair.”

Luna’s imp smiled and unwrapped, lissome like slime leaching into my blood.
Why, thank you, beautiful. Dance with me sometime.

The water fairy grinned, indigo ichor staining her cracked gums. “Flowers for you, twinny. You smell good.”

And I bet you taste good. Care to let me try?

Grudging admiration soured my mouth. He never gave up. Reduced to a gibbering soul fragment and still pulling moves.

I pushed the fairy’s hand away and wriggled my hips to sit up, the wooden box chafing the backs of my thighs. My limbs felt watery, weak. Tangy furniture oil itched my nostrils, and I glanced around at tall windows draped with brocade curtains, lush green carpet, an antique mahogany dining suite, a stuffed pale velvet lounge.

My lungs clenched tight, robbing me of air. What kind of freak leaves space in their lounge room for a body-sized box? “What am I doing here? Why did you kidnap me?”

She laughed, hoarse, and the corner of her mouth cracked open, dust puffing from ruined skin. “I’m just here for the candy. For napping of kids ask the candyman.”

Her mention of food watered my mouth, and my ravenous stomach growled. But I remembered the dirty blood in her spew, writhing like living flesh, and apprehension skewered me, sharp and hateful. Suddenly the box was a no-brainer. The kind of vampire freak who likes torturing people, maybe? And if I was in a box, what had he done with Rajah?

Urgency gripped me, adrenaline seeping warmth into my blood. “Is this Dante’s place? Where is he?”

The fairy twisted her neck with a crack, listening to something I couldn’t hear, and put a ripped finger to dry lips. She winked, her voice husking to a conspiratorial whisper. “Hush-hush on pretty twinny, child. He won’t like it.”

Luna’s snaky shade thrashed, and cramps bit into my abdomen.
Pay attention, wildcat. Can’t you smell him?

Warm breeze puffed over my face. A dark blur severed the air and solidified into Dante, black-clad, raindrops glinting in dark curls, spit running on hungry teeth. He yanked the fairy’s ragged hair back, forcing her chin up an inch from his face. “Don’t meddle.”

Dry white hanks broke off in his hand, and he grabbed more. Her silvery wings flapped uselessly, their translucent membranes crackling like cellophane. Her lips stretched, more dust crumbling from her face. “I told nothing. Just a looky. No telling.”

“I should hope not, if you want more.” He slid his fingers into her ruined hair, making it a caress instead of a threat, and wormed his tongue over her broken lip, tasting her sickness. “Say please.”

His whisper made her shiver, her black pupils slitting wide, her voice cracking. “Please.”

Disgust crawled over my skin like a fat black spider. The air suddenly chilled. No doubt he’d made me beg like this, and humiliation seared like frost in my heart. I wanted to wrap my naked body in my arms, cover myself. “Jesus, Dante. Leave her alone.”

He winked at me, malicious amusement glinting. “Your turn soon. Don’t be greedy.”

I wanted to scream shock into her veins, make her squirm away from his grip, but I realized I didn’t know her name. “He’s making you sick, darlin’, don’t go there.”

But she ignored me, fixated on him. Dante scraped one wicked fang over his own lip, dark blood welling.

“Please, Dante. Give it to me. I need it.” Her crusty lips trembled, and silver grit grimed her lashes, her tears thick and sluggish. “I want it.”

“Good enough for now.” He struck like a serpent for a kiss, rosy lips sliding on blue, his blood dribbling down her chin. She sighed and folded into his arms, deepening the kiss to suck out more. He groaned and cupped her breast, dragging her nipple to arousal.

Mmm.
Luna’s shade stretched, sensual.
Seems you like threesomes, Jade. Don’t waste it.

I looked away, nausea sliding in my stomach like a reptile’s scales. I didn’t want to watch Dante fuck her, bleed her, make her plead for more. It was too much like what he’d done to me.

But Dante pushed her away with a blood-smeared smile. “Enough. Leave us alone.”

She murmured in protest, licking ravenous lips, and my heart ached for her. She wiped her mouth with her frog-fingered hand, and it came away wet, not just with blood but also with water. A moment ago, her lips were crumbling. Now the wound was healed. She blinked, and moisture flowed into her gritty silver eyes. Her dull white hair sprang, newly fresh and shimmering, and her blue-veined cheek glistened damp and smooth, free of crumbling decay. She stretched her fingers, the pads glowing wet, and her smile shone clean, her teeth gleaming sharp.

I stared, confusion muddling my head like puzzle pieces tossed back into the box. I remembered sweet Nyx dissolving into wet rainbows on my sheets, Kane’s pretty fire sprite with ice in his hair. There was fae poison going around, all right, but it wasn’t Dante’s blood. He wasn’t making the water sprite sick. He was healing her, at least for now.
Some snort it with sugar,
she’d said. She’d spewed at Luna’s through overindulgence, not from poison.

The fairy twirled, water drops sparkling from her fingertips, iridescent fluid pulsing fresh in her wings. “Candy,” she whispered with a giggle, and fluttered away.

Dante licked his lips clean and sprawled on his lounge, a dark inkblot on pale velvet. He eyed me coolly, his dark blue gaze impersonal and bored. I recalled the way Rajah looked at me, warm, besotted, like I was the other half of his soul. The contrast made me shiver, gooseflesh crawling, my nakedness even colder now. How had I ever thought Dante compassionate?