Page 23 of Nocte

“Ask your question,” I snarl, cutting to the chase. She couldn’t hide her intentions if she tried. Such a greedy one when it comes to knowledge. I wonder how she’d react in Cassius’ library. The one he keeps locked up tight and warns us away from.

He doesn’t remark on that. So, I’m left to imagine it. The little fae might wet herself with glee. Would I give it to her? Maybe.

For a price.

“Tell me how to get to the other realm,” she demands. This is the one aspect of her I dislike. She isn’t haughty like other fae, with their holier-than-thou demeanor and noses upturned to the sky. Her arrogance isn’t an act. She demands and expects her quarry in return. There is no game with her. No chase.

Whatever I ask, she’ll give. Except blood.

She even says it as if reading the intention that crosses my mind. “No blood?—”

I silence her with a kiss that makes her wince. I slice her mouth on my teeth.Yum.I taste her blood after all. A hint. A glimpse. It’s so…

Fucking good.

My blood surges with need and desire. I’d rip her open if I could. Tear her to pieces. Drink and drink and drink.

You can’t,Cassius warns.

I don’t need him to hold me back. If I break her now there won’t be anything left to play with. No pretty little limbs to touch and feel with squeezing handfuls. No tiny throat to gasp and no living body to flinch as I ram my tongue inside that wet, warm mouth. She is a broken puppet at my disposal.

Unlike Cassius, I can’t break her mind on a whim. I can’t smother her urge to resist. I’ve got to make her want it—want me. I’ve got to coax this lamb into letting me slaughter her piece by piece.

So, I step back and let her breathe. She pants, struggling for air, her hands clutching her chest. I’ve ripped her robes open. Pale flesh lurks beneath the heavy fabric, out of my reach. She struggles to pin the material together. I grab the edges from her. Pull them apart. Stare.

It’s hard to tell whether she’s ugly or beautiful. Her body is gaunt, sickly thin. Nothing like the plump little beauties Cassius likes to hunt. He picks them out like a butcher would the primest rib. Those lazy, spoiled mortals, drunk on life and power and prestige. He especially likes the kind whose wealth has seasoned them like fine wine. He can taste the aristocracy as he drinks them up. Perhaps he believes it makes him wealthy as well. Poor Cassius.

He would never want her. Never ever want to shove himself into that delicate, tiny body and see if he’d fit. Make himself fit. He’d never crave what he could easily have.

But I do. My cock stirs to life with a searing, alien emotion. Lust. I want her.

You can’t,he warns. This time, his concern isn’t about the blood. This time, he isn’t asking. I feel his will slam into me, a weighted battering ram.No sex. No touching. No more kissing.

But why? He makes me do it to the others. Makes me lure and seduce his chosen few. He lets me fuck them, and suck them, and package them prettily for him. Forhim, he lets me have them.

Not her. She isn’t for him or anyone else. Locked in her tower, she’ll never be touched again. Never be seen. And when I kill her—whennot if—that poor little body won’t be in pieces large enough to be felt.

She’s mine at this moment. I can fuck her body and Cassius will never know the feeling. I can make her unlock this caged memory and usher new words into my fractured mind. A million seem to explode from nowhere, here and now.Gracile. Docile. Impeccable creature of ivory and ebony.Mine to take and ruin. All mine?—

I said no, Caspian!

I wince and pull back. My skull is on fire, his anger a rancid poison. Stupid motherfucker. He can do that when it suits him—hurt me when it suits him. I’m a dog on his leash.

“Are you alright?”

Her voice. The concern in it makes me recoil. It isn’t forced or faked. How dare she? I whip around and find her pressed to the wall, hands trembling, robe open, body on display. I look at her and forget the rest. Even Cassius. For a moment, he is a quiet, angry voice in the back of my skull and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Defying him hurts—excruciatingly. But when I kiss her again, the agony evaporates. The glee feels better. Rebellion feels incredible. I take my tongue and shove it deep. Hard. I’d shove my way through her throat if I could.

In her, I discover even more words. Sensations. Thoughts.The warmth of sun on my skin. Charcoal-coated fingers. Acrid smoke…

She sputters and presses on my chest. When I let her free, she gasps for air, her cheeks flushed pink.

I can hear Cassius again, gnawing away.Stop. I said stop!

“Name your price, little fae,” I croak to her. She knows what I want. She can already see. For the first time, those black eyes are wide and afraid. Good. Good. Good. Good.

“Tell me how to get into the other realm,” she says but her voice doesn’t break. It’s steady and stern in a way Cassius’ could never be. How the hell can she do that? She shouldn’t be able to…

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