Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1 (22 page)

Kara couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She couldn’t understand it. As she looked around and noticed how many men were palming their erections and stroking them in time with the thrust of the woman’s hips, Gavin wrapped a protective arm around her and pulled her close.

Then, like an avalanche on a clear winter day, the woman began to keen and grind herself into the man. “Yes!” she shouted. “Yes!” Her hips pumped savagely several more times until finally she fell exhausted to her side and her legs parted. Her face was radiant as she regarded her audience.

The man at her feet tried to inch closer to her, but he was yanked back by the man who had bound his hands. “Wait for the verdict!” the guard said.

The woman laughed. “Not bad. I’d give it a six. Still, not good enough to make it to the final round. Who’s next?”

A volley of hands shot up and several of the naked men stepped forward. The woman barely looked them in the eye—her gaze directed more on what strained from their bodies. “Oh, you…” she pointed at one. “Kiro, isn’t it? You’re exceptional. I think I’ve had you before. You will be next.”

Gavin spoke up before Kiro could step forward. “Lace, before your next
contestant
, I would like to introduce you to Kara Reed.”

The men went silent, and Kara wasn’t sure if it was from the steel in Gavin’s voice or from Kara crashing the party. Either way, when Gavin pulled her forward into the empty space between Lace and the crowd, Kara wanted to die.

The woman turned her seductive eyes toward Kara. Even by firelight, they were the most gorgeous cornflower blue, almost lit from within. Lace was an exquisite work of art. She sat up slightly and sprawled her legs toward Gavin, giving Kara a prime view of her swollen, rosy flesh.

“Oh, Gavin. What poor manners you have. I don’t expect to be interrupted unless you’re hoping to be added to my harem.” She smoothed one finger through her slick folds, and with only a soft whimper from her lips, the men at her shoulders replaced her hand with their own. “Good boys.” She rewarded them with a sultry smile.

“Lace,” Gavin said. “Behave yourself.”

“Or what? You’re going to punish me with that big cock of yours?” She grasped her servant’s hand and pushed his fingers inside her. “It’s almost time for you to service me again, Gavin. Don’t think I won’t take my turn because you found another plaything.”

The woman turned her cold blue eyes to Kara. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kara Reed. Let me know if you’d like to borrow any of my men.” She smiled suddenly, as if an idea had struck her. “Oh! What about Jaxon? I don’t want him anymore and I’ll have chosen his replacement by night’s end.”

When Lace gestured to a man on the sidelines, Kara noticed him for the first time. On his knees in the dirt, clad in nothing but black, x-shaped leather straps across his chest, his eyes were the saddest, most dejected thing Kara had ever seen. His brown hair looked unwashed and fell limply across his forehead. Forgetting introductions, or her own shame, Kara asked breathlessly, “What did he do wrong to have you treat him like this?”

“Pardon me?” Lace looked sincerely confused. “Jaxon didn’t
do
anything. He was losing his edge.” She cast him a dismissive glance. “You will learn soon enough, Kara Reed, you must be selective. There’s so much you don’t know. You need someone like me to show you.”

Indignation boiled like venom in Kara’s veins. Was this what Gavin wanted her to see? Was this how Demiáre females lived? “Yes,” Kara replied.

Lace sat up fully, her mouth curling into a grin. “You want me to teach you pleasure?”

“No. I meant yes I want that man there.” She pointed to Jaxon before his face even had a chance to register shock. “I’ll take him.”

Gavin leaned down and growled in her ear, “
Kara
.”

She squeezed his hand tight, hoping he got the message to let her handle this. She wasn’t going to let the sad-looking warrior be publicly humiliated as that vile woman had a “pussy eating” contest to choose his replacement.

“Will you come with me?” she asked the man. She heard several murmurs coming from the crowd and some of the men shifted on their feet, looking unsure of what was happening.

Jaxon’s dead eyes widened, as if he was hearing the conversation for the first time and only now registering Kara’s presence. He continued kneeling, not saying a word. Then, as if pulled by puppet strings, he rose to his feet and his gray wings extended. Even naked and dirty, he tilted his chin up and walked forward. As he stepped over Lace and her companions on his path to Kara, he yanked a cord from around his neck and dropped it at Lace’s feet.

Lace’s blue eyes turned murderous, but she smiled. “You’ll regret this, little princess. He’s finished.”

Kara smiled back. She’d faced down much scarier people than one naked Demiáre female. “I doubt that. He looks like a man who knows how to satisfy a woman. Regrets will be the furthest thing from my mind tonight.”

Lace sprang to her feet and the men around her scrambled out of the way. “How dare you interfere, you infant.”

Kara snorted. “How dare
you
, you nasty bitch. Where do you get off treating people that way?”

“Kara. That’s enough,” Gavin warned.

Lace’s blue eyes got bluer, casting a glow over her features that spread across her skin. Her pink lips edged away from her teeth to reveal two sharp, pointy fangs, and her fingers curved into crystalline claws, like shards of blue glass from the tips of her fingers. “It would be too bad if your first visit to our island were also your last.”

Kara could barely make out the words with the way Lace’s breath hissed through her teeth. She was more than a little concerned with the energy she felt in the air, not just evil intent, but with some kind of wattage to back it up. Just as she was about to square her shoulders and mutter a polite
fuck you
, Lace lifted her glowing hands above her head.

Oh, shit.
This was gonna hurt.

Gavin thrust Kara behind him, blocking her completely with his body. “Lace! Stand down!” he commanded.

“I won’t tolerate disrespect.” Kara couldn’t see her, but she sounded serious.

“As you said yourself, she’s young. She doesn’t know any better. It won’t happen again.”

“Like hell,” Kara muttered to Gavin’s back.

He quickly turned and took Kara by the shoulders, ushering her away with his body still covering hers. They walked through the crowd without looking back, and the demoralized warrior was right on their heels.

Gavin didn’t say a word until they had reached a small cottage on the edge of the tropical forest. He pulled Kara inside and released her hand, turning to her with fury burning in his eyes. “What have you done? You were only supposed to observe, Kara.”

“I saw enough, thank you very much.”

“No, you did much more than that. You made a dangerous enemy and claimed a warrior as your own on your first night on Mercury Island!”

“Oh, come on, Gavin! You can’t really think I would…” she began, but Jaxon knelt at her feet and took her hand, his silver wings folding against his back.

He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them tenderly. “Bless you, my lady. Even if you did it only as a kindness and don’t want me as a man, I’m yours. Thank you.” He kissed her palm and released her but stayed where he was.

“What’s this all about, Gavin? A hazing? A ritual I don’t understand?”

“We decreed a lady could not have more than fourteen men in her harem. It was causing too many fights between the men who already belonged to a female. They simply weren’t getting enough time with their lady. Some, like Lace, have made a game of filling the spots. Maybe to spite me…” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s getting out of control. Jaxon, how long have you been with Lace?”

Jaxon swallowed, gazing at the floor. “One hundred and thirty-three years, my lord. I came with her to Mercury Island, but I was with her long before that.”

Kara gasped. “A hundred and thirty-three years and that’s how she breaks it off? What kind of monsters are these women?”

Jaxon frowned and met Kara’s eyes. “Lace isn’t a monster. I’d say she was…bored. And she hasn’t conceived a child in over three hundred years. The strain is wearing on her.” He glanced up at Gavin. “She’s interested in you, my lord. If you could couple with her and give her a child, maybe she would return to her old self and take me ba—” His lips snapped shut, as if his pride had intervened and saved him from uttering the words.

“You’d go back to her?” Kara asked in surprise.

Jaxon’s folded wings disappeared into the slits in his back. “I’m yours now, my lady. I will not attempt to rejoin Lace’s harem.”

“But you want to?”

He gave her a sad smile, the first upward tilt of his lips she’d seen. “One hundred and thirty-three years devoted to one woman is a long time. I can’t sleep without her scent in my nostrils. I can’t breathe without knowing she’s safe.” His rich brown eyes welled and Kara’s heart ached for him. She couldn’t understand that kind of loyalty to such a callous woman.

“Jaxon…I’m sorry for your loss,” Gavin said, his discomfort showing in his voice. “Go to the palace. You’ll find your new mistress’s quarters between Lord Julian’s chambers and my own. That is your home now. You need a shower and a change of clothes. You look about Aiden’s size—I’m sure he won’t mind lending you some things until I recover your property from Lace’s camp. Ask a servant when you arrive and they will help you get settled.”

“Thank you, my lord.” Jaxon bowed his head, then got to his feet and stepped outside the cottage. Kara saw his gray wings extend and his muscular form take flight. She felt guilty ogling the poor man’s naked backside, but it left her with no doubt that not only was Lace mean-spirited, but to give up a man like Jaxon, she must also be crazy.

As soon as he was out of earshot, she turned to Gavin. “I have a room in the palace? Why?”

His jaw flexed in the light cast by the fire. “In case you chose to stay with us. Julian suggested it, and I agreed it was a good idea. I didn’t think you’d actually need it to initiate your harem.”

She tugged her peach dress up. “I don’t need a room here, and I’m not initiating
anything
.”

“You publicly chose him, Kara! Without even knowing the rules of Demiáre society. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that you’re all really fucked up and I couldn’t let him be humiliated by that woman! That’s what I was thinking.”

“Well,” he conceded. “It’s done now. You offered and he accepted. He’s yours.”

Kara swallowed. “What exactly does that mean?”

Gavin raked another angry hand through his blond hair. “It means he will give his life to protect you and you agree to bring him into your fold. The oath is sealed by allowing him to mate you.”

“What?” Kara blanched, but her traitorous body purred its acceptance. Images of Julian’s body rocking against hers filled her vision until she could barely see, and then the sight morphed into Julian and Jaxon, taking turns plunging into her depths.

Sweat instantly beaded on her skin, seeping from her pores. She felt feverish. “That’s a stupid tradition. I was doing it to be nice.”

“Damn foolish girl,” he burst out, his anger finally getting the best of him. “I can’t protect you from one man before you bind yourself to another. You’ve put me in a difficult position, Kara. I can’t keep three hundred men in check if I don’t enforce the rules.”

Kara’s mouth fell open. “You wouldn’t ask me do this against my will, would you, Gavin?”

He blew out a breath and stepped forward to take her hands in his. “Of course not, princess. Let me think.” He paused for a moment. “We can send him away. We’ll send him to another continent for a decade or so. No one will question it. Your will is his command.”

“I didn’t stand up for him to make his life worse. I’m not going to send him into exile. He can keep my room. I’m going home tonight anyway.”

“Hiding away in your room won’t help his standing here. Our sense of smell is too acute, Kara. Just as Julian marked you tonight for the world to know, every man here will know you didn’t want Jaxon and his shame will be complete. It’s more humane to send him away.”

Kara looked around the small cottage and found a chair. She plopped into it with a heavy sigh. “It’s like I woke up in the
Twilight Zone
. This is too much.” Her mind was buzzing, but her throat felt tight and her skin was still slick. She needed Julian. She licked her lips and cast a furtive glance at Gavin’s muscled thighs.

“Think, Kara…” she mumbled. “Okay. I have an idea and you’re going to have to trust me. I’ll spend the night with Jaxon and by the time I leave in the morning, no one will doubt he’s mine.”

Gavin blinked. “No. This is my fault. I wanted to show you the dangers of giving in to your Demiáre urges. How could I have known you’d stand up to Lace and beat her at her own game?” He laughed. “Look who I’m talking to. Of course I should have known.”

“Everything’s going to be okay.” Kara’s chin tilted up with a confidence she didn’t feel. “Show me my parents’ stuff, then I’ll settle this problem with Jaxon and check on Julian before I go. It’s fine.” Catching a serial rapist at home was looking tame compared to the mess on Mercury Island.

“You already have the other half of your father’s ring. Your mother’s journal is at the palace, and I had the painting of her hung in your room.”

“A journal?” She didn’t know what she was expecting, but a journal wasn’t it. But maybe a journal was exactly what she needed. How better to get to know a mother who was long dead?

“I left it on the nightstand next to your bed. Come. Let’s get this over with.”

As Gavin held Kara in his arms, he wondered how, in the name of Og, things had gotten so out of control. He wanted to keep flying and take her away to a place where she didn’t have a warrior waiting in her room, a place where his best friend hadn’t made a sire’s claim over the woman Gavin wanted for himself.

But Gavin had always been strong. And since the day he’d turned his back on the old ways, he’d always put the needs of his clan above his own. All he had to do was make sure Julian stayed asleep while Kara followed through on what she intended.