Page 23 of Princess Broken

Below that, a tight skirt, also red leather, coats her hips like paint, stopping just below her lap. Her shapely legs are bare down to heavy black boots sporting high heels that must be very challenging to walk in, given the uneven, yet smooth surfaces down here.

And yet she doesn’t have any difficulty as she approaches, like the high heels are part of her.

Another female steps up beside her, and Ebony wraps her arm around the second female’s waist and then bends to lick her throat. The second vampire closes her eyes and moans, as if in ecstasy.

“Gracen,” Flame says and then chuckles. “Looks like you’re settling in?”

Opening her eyes, the second vampire laughs too, as she smiles lasciviously at Flame.

Gracen’s lusty expression sends a flash of what feels like jealousy burning through me, although I’m not certain how jealousy feels. It’s been so many years since I’ve felt that emotion. It reminds me of when I was young and one of my sisters was given a toy I coveted, or when she received extra attention from Our Friend.

Thinking of my human sisters brings back my grief. The past hours have rushed by in a haze. My emotions remain both scrambled and heightened, and it’s still hard to believe that Timur’s death was real. That he’s gone.

“Trials passed or not,” Ebony says, “I’ve got to say…your new plaything is smoking hot.”

Lifting my gaze, I find hers filled with heat.

“She’s ours,” Phil barks.

“I am not yours.” I glare at him.

“She’s under our protection.” Blade shifts closer toward me. “Anyone who touches her gets staked. Pass that around.”

“You’ve got no fucking say as to who gets in to Freetown,” Crusher says to Ebony as he widens his stance. ”We set the trials. It’s our call when and how to enforce them.“

“Yes, master,” Ebony says, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Crusher growls and his hands form huge fists.

“Make sure everyone gets the message.” Flame steps toward the two females. He runs the backs of his fingers over the bare skin of Ebony’s décolletage, and I’m even more shocked as his hand continues lower, sliding over her breasts, then over her leather clothes and landing between her legs.

“Flame.” Her eyelids flicker. “Stop that, unless you mean to deliver.”

“Babe, you know I can deliver.” Flame adds more pressure between the female’s legs and her hips pulse forward.

Laughing, she bats his arm away, shaking her head, clearly more amused than angry at the uninvited touch, and then she draws up the other female vampire’s hand to cup one of her breasts.

“Later, lover,” Flame says as he steps back from her.

“That a promise or a threat?” Ebony asks.

“Both.” Flame winks, and my jealousy rages again.

I have absolutely no plans to claim Flame, or any of these four males as a lover, so I can’t understand my reaction. I must still be in shock.

“Let’s go,” Phil says.

The men form a tight formation around me, and I move along with them, or perhaps they’re moving with me. It’s impossible to tell which, but I’m like the tiny nucleus of an organism moving as one, and we drift toward the far end of the large cavern.

Through the gaps between the men’s bodies, I notice passageways and rooms to the sides of the big space. Turning, we follow one of those passageways, until we hit another dead end, solid stone.

Flame places his palm on the wall. Lights scan his body, and in a flash, the wall vanishes—not a wall, but a hidden door.

I move forward along with the men, and the air pressure changes as the door closes behind us. My attention focuses on the space we’ve entered, and even more so on the way all four of the men visibly relax once we’re inside. The change is not only visible—muscles loosening, tight jaws releasing—there’s a change in the atmosphere around them, like an alteration to the chemical make up of the air.

“Welcome.” Turning toward me, Blade grins.

“Is this where you live?”

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