“Always,” I vow, straddling his waist and lining his cock up with my entrance. I place my hands on his chest and stare into his dark eyes. “In here, with me, I’m in charge. I’m the queen. Do you understand that?” When he doesn’t immediately answer, I pinch his nipples.
“Yes, mistress,” he breathes.
“Then let’s forget the world for another few hours, shall we?”
Chapter 26
Violet
The sky is a dreary shade of grey, stagnant storm clouds hanging sluggishly over our heads. Fitting, I suppose, for the first round of the Roaring. After all, it isn’t just a competition. It’s an execution.
I wrap my arms around my waist as I stand alongside the other couple hundred competitors. Normally, I’d be amazed at all of the monsters in one location. Everyone from the original Wolfman to the Mummy from the Egyptian tombs to Cheryl’s dad, the Loch Ness Monster. They’re all chomping at the chance to taste blood.
Hopefully not my blood. Call me a hypocrite, but I rather like my blood in my body, thank you very much. Ain’t nothing sexier than a vampire full of blood.
Pro tip—don’t ruin the sexy.
The Academy has decreed we all wear the approved skin-tight red shirts and black shorts. Conformity at its finest. At least the guys look hot in their too-short shorts. I’m pretty sure I can even see some dick if I look hard enough—cough, when I get on my hands and knees and stare up their shorts, cough. Honestly, at this point, I only feel comfortable peeping on Vin. After what we did last night…
My cheeks warm as I chance a glance at my hunter, standing farther down the line beside his father, mother, and sister. He warned me he’ll have to play a part until they leave campus, and I can’t begrudge him for wanting to protect me. I would do the same thing if Dracula was here.
Which he isn’t.
This is the first Roaring in over two hundred years that he chose not to attend. Is he really that afraid to talk to me? The familiar tendrils of hurt unfurl in my chest like a splotch of ink being dropped in water. I honestly can’t say why it hurts so much, only that it does. A lot.
Because every little monster wants to be hugged by her daddy and told that everything’s okay. That we’re both the scariest monsters in the universe and that we’re not.
“You okay?” Frankie whispers from the left side of me. Jack is on the right, with Mason directly beside him. I don’t see Cal and Barret, only because they were escorted straight from detention to the Roaring and could be anywhere in the line.
“Peachy,” I reply, already fixing my gaze on Dimitri stepping up to the raised podium.
“Welcome.” There’s no microphone, but his voice is easily able to carry. Silence descends as every monster in the vicinity, including the ones in the observation stands, gives him their undivided attention. “As headmaster of Prodigium Academy, it is my sacred duty to run the yearly games,” he begins, sweeping his icy blue gaze across the assembled monsters. His eyes stop on me and stay there. “For the first round, each of you will enter the portal.”
As he speaks, a vertical pool of light appears in the center of the clearing. It seems to swirl like thousands of stars are residing in its depths. I’m momentarily thunderstruck as I stare at the portal, my tongue turning to cotton.
“Inside, you will find yourself in an arena created by our very own game makers.” He nods towards the two men who recruited me. Yet, despite the icicles in their hair and on their faces, they appear warm in comparison to Dimitri Gray. “The rules are simple. You must survive for twenty-four hours. There are traps and creatures beyond your comprehension, all of which have been created by our very own Dr. Frankenstein.”
Frankie tenses beside me, face going pale, as we turn to stare at the waving man standing a little bit apart from the crowd. He has pale red hair brushed away from a gaunt, sickly-looking face. His dark eyes gleam with violence and excitement, a combination that makes chills erupt on the back of my neck.
“And as always,” Dimitri swivels his gaze back to me, eyes both reproachful and cautionary, “murder is allowed. This is a competition. Only the best of the best monsters are allowed to win. If you can’t survive against your fellow competitors, then you don’t deserve to be here at all.”
Oh, fuck me.
In the monster world, the punishment for killing a fellow monster is immediate death. But in the games? It’s a free-for-all.
And you can bet your sweet ass every monster will go after Dracula’s daughter.
As you see, I’m fucked, but not in a good way. More in a “stick your cock in my anus without any lube” sort of way.
“Once you’re in the arena, there will be a ten second countdown. When the timer gets to zero, all gloves are off. The goal is to not only survive, but to find your way out of the arena before the twenty-four hours are up. If you fail to do so, you will explode with the arena.”
Well, fuck me sideways. There are a lot of words in that speech I didn’t like. “Death,” for one. And “explode.”
“We’ll stay together,” Jack whispers, leaning towards me. “We’ll enter the portal as a group. If we stay together, we’ll be able to get out of this mess alive.”
Logically, I know he’s right, but I have the distinct feeling it won’t be that easy.
“You may now enter the portal,” Dimitri declares, keeping his eyes fixed on me. I can see he’s trying to tell me something, but what that something is remains a mystery. Can’t he send out smoke signals or something? Maybe do some elaborate charades? I’m not the best at reading people by staring into their eyes.
When it becomes apparent I have no idea what the fuck he’s trying to say to me, Dimitri throws his hands in the air.
Awww. Is the scary little assassin scared for me? A girly part of me wants to scrapbook this moment.
“You see here, kids. This was the day your grandpa Dimitri realized he actually liked little ole me. I totally had him wrapped around my pussy lips.”
Okay, maybe I would take out the last line. Don’t want to traumatize my non-existent grandkids.
The monsters are surprisingly patient as, one by one, they step through the portal, blinking out of existence. Despite having over two hundred monsters competing, it takes less than five minutes for most of the monsters to step through. I lose sight of Vin very quickly, and I still can’t see Barret and Cal, but Mason, Frankie, and Jack remain with me as we venture to the starlit-spun opening.
“I would recommend grabbing supplies at the hospital first,” Dimitri says dryly just before I step through. At my pause, he levels me with the full force of his penetrating ice-blue gaze. “You’re going to need it.”
Before I can comment that I’m super awesome and not at all prone to almost dying, a monster shoves me from behind—much to my guys’ fury—and I tumble headfirst through the portal.
Have you ever attempted to do a front flip in a swimming pool before? Traveling through a portal reminds me of that sensation. I’m forced to hold my breath as my body twists and turns for what feels like an eternity, but is probably closer to a few seconds.
In the next moment, I am spit out onto the cement, my hands hitting the concrete first.