He searched my eyes before he turned to the men. “Clean up the evidence of the kills and toss them through a portal. You, Aria, get to come with me. I thought you wanted to fuck Dimitri?”
“If I had wanted to fuck him, he’d be fucked.”
“Interesting, considering every time you lose control of your beast, you end up on my dick,” he said, watching me carefully.
“It’s good dick, Knox.”
He chuckled, pulling me closer as he nuzzled my ear before slipping his fingers through mine, dragging me toward the creek. Once he reached it, he released my hand, and I watched him as he stepped closer to the water, scooping his hands into the ice-cold section of the creek to remove the blood from his body. The moment the water touched his flesh, it sizzled and then steam curled into the air. Slowly, he scrubbed the water over his arms and chest before standing and turning to look at me.
“Come here, woman,” he ordered, and I listened, because beneath the cool exterior, there was something else watching and waiting for me to disobey. And it was probably a serial killer that I’d totally almost just gotten off with. “Kiss me.”
“Why?” I carefully studied the way his body pulsed with carnal power even as I stepped closer to him, doing as he asked.
“Because I need your pretty scent to hide theirs, and it oozes from you when you kiss me, so fucking kiss me like you want me, little one.”
His hand lifted my shirt, exposing my midriff as he pulled me closer. I tipped my head back, claiming his lips slowly as he rubbed my body against his, creating erotic friction. My hands skimmed over the washboard abs to his chest, then down his arms, rubbing my scent over his flesh, marking him. Deepening the kiss, he devoured my mouth, pulling me closer until I was pushing my fingers through his hair as he lifted me. My legs wrapped around him, and I tossed self-preservation to the wind as I kissed him like the last few days away had left me famished, and half-crazed with need. He pushed his cock against me, and I started to undo his pants to get to what I needed.
A cough sounded behind us a moment before my sisters exploded into the clearing next to the creek. I pulled away from his kiss, staring at him, and my hands slipped off of his cock unwillingly, moving around his shoulders as I climbed down, skimming over the cock that had grown hard again to remind him he was mine. He smirked roguishly as I pushed against it, wanting it on an animalistic level.
“You’re coming home with me tonight,” he whispered huskily against my ear as he turned me to face the people moving through the woods into the clearing.
“You bet your ass I am, big boy.”
Dimitri took in the way I leaned against Knox and his arms wrapped against my body protectively. His chin rested on my shoulder, and I was confident he had a shit-eating grin on his lips. He rumbled his growl deep from in his chest, and then the rattle escaped his lips, and mine sounded instantly, as if his beast called to mine, and it answered him eagerly.
“That explains where Aria went,” Kinvara chuckled. “The new portals are larger than the first two on the property, but they are in the back and as large as Dimitri said they were.”
Dimitri hadn’t looked away from me. His hands fisted at his sides, and he turned his lips up, taking in the way I melted against Knox. I couldn’t move, not because I didn’t want to, but because there was a massive erection resting against my lower back. I was a greedy bitch, and I didn’t want anyone to see the rather large package that I was going to get delivered tonight.
“Logan, Chase, and Brent have all vanished. I can’t sense them or catch their scent,” Dimitri growled angrily. “You wouldn’t know anything about the disappearance of my men, would you, Knox?”
“I only just entered the woods and came upon a ravishing maiden drinking from the creek and decided to devour her pretty mouth. Then the impish maiden climbed on, and things got hot and heavy rather quickly, which made it rather hard to give a fuck what happened to your men. She’s rather demanding when she needs to be fucked. You know how it is with Aria. Oh, wait, you don’t.”
“Ouch, he went there,” Kinvara snickered.
“I will have her, eventually. You will be recalled to the Nine Realms, and I’ll be the one to catch her when she falls. Your kind always leaves. Sooner or later, she’ll welcome me instead of you.”
Knox chuckled darkly like it was funny, but Dimitri’s words had echoed within me. He wasn’t here to stay, that much was clear. He wasn’t even trying to fit in, and that was a requirement. Our races had to be kept secret from humans because it would create mass hysterics, and then they’d want to study us.
Carefully, I turned, looking up at Knox as his eyes continue to stare at Dimitri in open challenge. I stepped away, exhaling, and moved to where my sisters stood as a chilling iciness filled the clearing. I paused, hesitating, exhaling slowly as I watched my breath steamed in the frostbitten air. The men looked around as we moved closer to them.
Kinvara whimpered, remaining outside the area we’d all stood within. Her mouth moved, and sheer terror entered her eyes. Ice particles started to form on her fingers, and I frowned as I watched it growing thicker on her flesh.
“Kinvara?” Tears ran down her cheeks, turning to ice that left red marks over her flesh as they fell to the ground, shattering. “Kinny, come to me,” I whispered in a plaintive tone.
“I can’t, Aria,” she sobbed as her skin began covering with frost, turning blue.
I rushed toward her, uncaring of the danger. Her hand lifted, and she shook her head, opening her mouth to scream in warning. The moment I got close enough to her, I felt it. It was debilitating fear, so thick and horrid that my legs slowed as I grabbed her, pushing her out of it before I started back in the other’s direction, only to feel something grab ahold of me from behind. Claws slid through my flesh, and I screamed with pain ripping through me as the ice pierced my flesh. My mouth opened, and I watched Knox lunge for me, only to brush his fingertips against mine as I was ripped through something that felt as if I was being cut to shreds, screaming his name as incapacitating, all-consuming fear and pain devoured me. Knox rattled loudly, shaking the darkness that severed through my mind, fading everything around me to nothingness. I blinked past the ice that covered my eyes, solidifying in them as I hit the ground hard. The ice burned my eyes, slithering over me as I continued blinking to keep it from blinding me.
Staring up, the world blurred around me as a figure bent down, grabbed me up by the hair, and tossed me into a cart, covering my body with blankets. I was losing consciousness from the immense pain still firing through my entire body, ripping apart the nerve endings until it became too much to bear, and I finally gave in to the nothingness.
Chapter 51
The sound of dripping water over concrete woke me. I wiped the crusted sleep from my eyes and peered around the dark room. The horrendous smell of rotting flesh and feces filled my nose, and I gagged, sitting up on my knees to vomit onto the floor. My arm lifted, covering my eyes as they burned from the rancid smell of putrid flesh. I threw up repeatedly until everything in my stomach was spilled on the floor. Looking around the dark cell, I noted the leg of the cell’s last occupant still rotting in the corner, and heaved again, even though my stomach had nothing left to give. I pushed up to my feet, staring at the bars that allowed very little light into the darkness.