Oh, clothes. Right.
“Hmm. We’re spending a lot of time in the bath.”
“Complaining?” Maddox asked as he nipped my ear. I could barely work up the energy to swat him.
“Nope. Just this frigid mausoleum has to have more than two interesting rooms.” Granted, I really hadn’t done much more in that bedroom than get gloriously laid and sleep. Could say the same thing about the bathing room for that matter.
“We’ve got to open it back up,” Maddox rumbled. “It will take some time. Just indulge us for now. I promise, we won’t let you get bored.” He stroked his hand over my belly and up to cup a breast.
No, boredom would not be an issue. Desire stirred, even as he began to toy with my nipple. Seriously, what the hell? I covered his hand with mine and tugged it away.
“Sore, Kitten?” Laughter underscored his concern, and he shifted his hands to resting on my thighs. The swirls of hot water were definitely helping, still…
“Yes,” I said. While true, it wasn’t totally true. I could quite happily straddle another one of their cocks. The fact I wanted to bugged the ever-loving shit out of me though. Fin studied me from half-closed eyes, but he didn’t call me on my comment. So either I wasn’t projecting, or he was letting me get away with my white lie.
The brush of Maddox’s cock against my ass sent another curl of desire to stir through me, and I pushed off his lap. I half-expected him to drag me back, but he didn’t. Instead, he draped his arms against the side as I moved to another seat.
They were both relaxed, comfortable with the fact they’d drained me for a second time and I’d fed off all three of them. More than comfortable, I was almost looking forward to Fin having his turn to feed on me.
And enough of that. I rose and climbed out of the water, ignoring the sting of cooler air against my thoroughly ravaged pussy. And yes, out of the water, it made sure to let me know it had been well-used and stretched.
The tingle of desire grew as I padded, dripping, over to the fire and reclaimed the heavy robe. Dragging it on, I stared at the flames. Getting comfortable here would be a mistake.
The table was still there, the food definitely absent, but a thermos sat in the middle, and when I popped it open, the scent of still hot coffee filled my nostrils. Oh, good.
I needed to wash the taste of them out. Playing along and letting them get relaxed while I worked out my next step made the most logical sense. They were powerful allies, but they showed every sign that they wanted to keep me, and I was no one’s pet or prize.
Despite Fin’s claims when he visited in my cell and Maddox’s insistence on calling me Kitten, I refused to be owned. Even if the nickname had begun to grow on me. I’d known them what? Three days? Maybe four? I’d lost all track of time, first in the prison and now here. After taking a swallow of coffee, I looked up and around. There were no windows in this room.
That made sense, it was below ground.
Was it even still daytime out there?
How long had I actually been fucking them and getting fed on before they fed me?
Would the sun still be up?
“Beautiful,” Fin said quietly. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
Not glancing over my shoulder, I focused on the fire. “Can’t you tell?”
“At the moment?” Something different shifted in his voice. “No. But you’re concentrating very hard.”
Good. As fun as he was, I didn’t want to fall for that charm. There was no place for it in my world. Once I got this sorted out, I had to go.
Long-term things just weren’t my jam. A weird little seesaw tug pulled in my belly at the thought of leaving.
“I was just wondering if I could go see the sun…I haven’t seen it in weeks.”
Then I held my breath, not sure what I wanted the answer to be, but that disquieting sensation over leaving them? Yeah, that could fuck right off.
They weren’t mine, and I wasn’t theirs.
Chapter 11
“Deadly is the tongue that only curls and doesn’t stab.” - Unknown
Rogue
Pulling open the heavy iron doors, Rogue let himself inside before sealing the entrance behind him. Fin and Maddox had the female in the bathing room. It was warmest there for now. He often forgot about the temperatures here, so after he’d let her feed on him and he’d satisfied her demanding need to fuck her—and his own need to do it for that matter—he’d left her in their hands while he took care of getting the keep more habitable.
Fin would bring in furnishings and had already summoned several pieces from his place on the isles. It was enough to add to the bedroom. They were using his for now, but he would pull the other pieces from storage, including their own beds. No need to sleep in a pile once they smoothed her transition through.
The faint taint of shadow demon lingered on her. The beast had pounded himself into her cells. Hybrids scared most of the vampire lines. They traced their lineages by how close they were to the seven, the original seven. The closer the links to the seven sires who made all vampires, the more important they considered themselves.
Pompous jackasses, the lot of them.
Hybrids were myths as far as most of them were concerned. Rogue, Fin, Maddox, and Alfred had long since faded from the public. They kept to themselves, and those that decided to hunt myths were usually never seen again. Descending the long flight into the hold buried within the mountain, Rogue didn’t need torches to light his way.
This whole cavern boasted hints of ice along the rocks lining the way. Mid-winter, the temperatures were sub-zero. Maddox hated it down here, but Fin didn’t mind it so much, though neither ventured too deep anymore.
It had been more than a hundred years since Alfred went to sleep again after only being awake a year. The oldest of them all, he had grown weary of the world, the politics among the councils, and the foolishness of young vampires wanting to cut their teeth on other species.
Old pacts and alliances lay in half-forgotten tatters as younger generations jockeyed for position. Rogue could care less, but it was those same politics that landed the turned succubus in Nightmare Penitentiary and right into the hands of a shadow demon.
At the end of the long cavern, he ran his fingers around the edging of the door, removing the ice locking it closed before he pumped the handle and pulled the door open. Inside the shadowed chamber, he paused.
Nothing moved. The heart beating inside beat sluggishly. One beat for every few minutes. Legend said vampires slept in coffins. Stories to delight and horrify the masses. While they didn’t actually sleep in a coffin, those who went to ground often buried themselves far away from civilization, to avoid the sights, the sounds, and the distractions that might wake them early.
Deep in the hold beneath the keep, they were as far from others as they could get. If Rogue tilted his head and focused, he could catch the three beating hearts above. Fiona’s beat far faster than Maddox’s or Fin’s. It had been racing when he sank into her earlier while she fed on Maddox. Rogue’s own body had thrummed with renewed vigor since draining her. The shadow taint wouldn’t survive within him, just as it wouldn’t in the others.
They were old enough in his case, magical enough in Fin’s, and just pure stubborn in Maddox’s, that it couldn’t warp them as it would and had been in her. So far, she’d impressed Rogue with her willfulness and independence. He supposed she’d needed those traits to survive, as her kind were often dismissed as hedonists. It might make fitting her into their lives a challenge.