I moved to roll up and maybe blot her lipstick with my lips or something, but Johnno’s arms snapped around me.
“No,” he said, his voice still raw, tugging me back down beside him.
“It’s OK,” I said, the singularly strange experience of reassuring someone only minutes ago I’d cast as complete rock god sitting comfortably on me somehow. I had spent my life as a mouse, but I was one who roared now. I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but I knew Johnno really needed me right now, and I wanted to keep him happy.
“He’ll come back to himself. Marlow did. It can be a hard thing, particularly for a man,” Aen said, her voice a deep velvety purr. “They are not allowed to experience vulnerability in the way we do, though I see your first mate has adjusted remarkably well.” She brushed a thumb over Marlow’s cheekbone, causing him to go completely still. “Let go of the theatrics, little herald. It is but a skill, not the sum of your worth. Join them, because I can’t yet. They need you.”
She disappeared in a flourish of black fabric, just leaving a wide-eyed Marlow in her wake.
“Do you?” he asked.
“Always,” I said, and opened the arm not around Johnno for him.
This was a pleasure I’d never expected to experience—the feel of two incredibly hot guys lying pressed up against either side of me. A heavy kind of quiet had settled over the bus, now that the crowds had gone home and court was being set up. We didn’t have long, but I made it last forever, just focussing on each breath as they came and went. A million thoughts clamoured for attention—about what this meant, who I was, where things were going with each man, and what did I want from them. But they got pushed to one side for now, something I was getting damn good at.
I knew when we were being summoned by the uncomfortable prickle on the back of my neck. Johnno groaned in response to it, shifting on the bed, then sitting up. He fished out his phone, clicking on the screen to accept a call.
“We’re on our fucking way. Yes, I know. I… Fuck, you have no idea what you’re asking. You don’t know. No, you think you do, but you have no idea. Fuck you, Liam, fuck you.”
He threw it down on the bed, raking his hands through his hair, then stiffened when I stopped them. His eyes flicked from my eyes to my mouth and back again, so I kissed him, something that had him softening again. His breath came in a sharp intake, his arms going around me, holding me hard against him as our mouths opened, tasting each other, keeping that for later.
Because he was going to have to leave me to my fate.
“Johnno—” Billy said, appearing in the doorway.
“Yes, I fucking know,” he snapped at his bandmate, but when he turned back to me, he was all soft and golden. “Court’s insane. I…I don’t know how to prepare you for it. Just remember, no one can make you do anything you don’t want to within Hartley. Stick close to Billy. Don’t let anyone separate you from him, because no one is getting past him. Keep Marlow by your side. He’s not ours and…”
“And I’m not strong like you. I usually avoid court for that reason. Sick of people fucking manhandling me,” Marlow finished for him, the last bit little more than a mutter.
“But you’re mine,” I said, liking the flare in those green eyes. “I don’t want other people touching those that’re mine.”
That seemed to please Marlow, if his slow smile was anything to go by, but Billy let out a hiss of frustration.
“Kira—” Johnno began to say as he pulled on a t-shirt.
“It’s OK. Go see what brother dear wants. I’ll school our newest member on court politics,” Billy said with a wave.
Johnno moved towards me automatically, like a husband kissing his wife on the way to work. I felt my cheeks flush at that, causing him to pause. I grabbed and drew him in, then placed a slow, chaste kiss on his lips, loving that he melted into me, though he had to pull away quickly enough. The cramp at the base of my skull obviously affected him too, if his scratching hand was any indication.
“You’ll be here tonight?” he asked as he went to the door.
“We will be,” I answered, shooting a look at Marlow, who grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumb over the knuckles.
“Come on,” Billy said with thinly veiled irritation. “I left Jakey chained up outside, and he’s just as likely to start pissing on the wheels when bored.”
“What?”
“C’mon!”
“Hey Kira.”
Jake had indeed been tied to the front of the bus, though admittedly on a fairly long leather lead with a collar fastened around his muscular throat. He grinned impishly when I took that in, and what little else he had on. It was bloody cool out, you could see it in the way his pale nipples had pulled up into tight buds, because all he wore was his collar and a kilt.
“You like?” he said, swaying his hips. “Ease of access.” He flipped up the hem of his kilt, showing us a tantalising glimpse of a whole lot of muscular flesh. His cock was hard, and his grin was wide. He should have appeared like those distant god-like creatures he and the band resembled when I shot them before Jen’s party, but he didn’t. Had I seen it before or had it taken my own transformation to make me see it? I did something I never would have done before this—I moved away from the guys and ran my hand over that lean chest. There wasn’t a scrap of fat on him, his skin taut and unforgiving under my fingertips. But he wasn’t. There was a faint tremor that passed through his body as I caressed him, his eyes going wide and his smile unfocussed for a second as the mask appeared to drop.
“You look amazing, Jake. I’ll be proud to call you my proxy.”
I didn’t even know what that meant, but the words seemed to be the right ones. His hand slapped over mine, stopping it from going any further, holding it over his heart.
“Don’t,” he said, his voice wavering a little. “I’m already so fucking hard. I want to last for you, but right now, I’m only just hanging on.” He looked away, shaking his head, then laughing. “Maybe I should duck behind the bus and stroke one off to take the edge off.”
“That won’t be needed.”
We both turned to see Billy had taken ahold of the end of the lead, coiling it in his hands before handing it to me.
“This signifies that he is yours, that he will take your role in any tableaus people wish to engage you in. People will be very curious about you. You radiate power. We will be your buffers.” Billy swallowed, that still quietness he carried with him disturbed for a second. “I drained all the power you thrust into me so I can take anything you need drained from you tonight, but you’ll have access to the reservoir now that you’re Hartley. What the drainers did, those stones? You can offer them to people who want your favour and make alliances. Yours are incredibly high quality. You’ll be able to get quite a lot if you choose to trade them.” He turned and glanced at Marlow. “To keep him safe, you’d be better to collar him too. It signifies to everyone else that he is off limits.”
“He is off limits,” I growled, instantly feeling a hot flare of possessiveness, then I looked at the man himself. “Shit, I didn’t ask—”